The Hawkeye Invasion of Maryland, DC, and Virginia

Prologue

The Big Ten expanded to fourteen teams adding Maryland and Rutgers for the primary purpose of bringing the New York, Baltimore, and Washington, DC media markets into the Big Ten sphere. I think a second reason was to provide the hundreds of thousands of Big Ten alumni living on the East Coast an easier opportunity to see their teams play.  Or provide alumni and others living in their home states (or foreign countries) a reason to take a vacation to Washington, DC or New York City.

When the Big Ten announced their future schedules a year or so ago and Iowa was scheduled to play at Maryland, Garv and I immediately started planning a trip.  Last spring, Garv sent out an email to friends and family and many people planned on joining us.

Most of the group in downtown College Park, MD

Here was the crew:

Me (Estherville, IA)

Garv and Lindsay (my brother-in-law and sister; Santiago, Chile)

Mom and Dad (Remsen, IA)

Ron and Jeanne (Garv's aunt and uncle but they're like family; Okoboji, IA)

Brandee (Ron and Jeanne's daughter; Las Vegas, NV)

Jean and Mark (Dad's sister and her boyfriend; Des Moines, IA)

Lynda and Pat (Jeanne's cousin and her husband; St. Louis, MO)

Betty (Jeanne's cousin; St. Louis, MO)

Nick and Jill (Garv and LG's friends; Des Moines, IA)
Saturday crew:

Brian (Ron and Jeanne's son; St. Petersburg, FL)

Andy (Brian's friend, Univ of Maryland alum; Westchester, PA)

Joe (Andy's friend, Washington, DC)

I asked everyone to share their favorite moments of the trip. Those that responded back I included in the narrative (Garv and LG, get your asses in gear). I arranged them chronologically so as to provide some structure.


You'll notice that there is a "Tony" and a "Tony as narrator" characters. The "Tony" voice will be my impressions of the trip.  "Tony the Narrator" will fill in the gaps in the narrative and provide context and explanation when necessary.  Anything in brackets is also my words.

Introduction

Lindsay: The fact that so many people from so many places met there.  It was especially meaningful to Garv and I because as soon as everyone knew we were going to be there, everyone booked their flights in a matter of days.
Garv:  The response to the email I sent saying we had locked in our itinerary was phenomenal.  Within a few short days, there were a dozen confirmed flight reservations.  In total, 16 people were in our group for the game.  That is an impressive response.

Bee: The fact that we got as many people there as we did, and it all worked out so smoothly.  Must have been the pristine planning. 

Tony the Narrator: Of course it was.

Mom: My favorite part of the trip was that so many of us came together from so many different places. 

Tony: I think the most amazing thing about the entire trip was that we all made it to DC on the evening of Thursday, October 16 or throughout the day on Friday.  This was my fifth trip to DC (and one of those trips was actually a six-week internship for Senator Grassley) so I'm very familiar with the DC area.  This trip, however, was more exciting because so many members of our group had never been to DC.

Thursday

Tony: I enjoyed the first evening when the my parents, Mark, Jean, Ron, Jeanne, the St. Louis crew, and Brandee were drinking Miller Lite and Yuengling, eating room service pizza, and catching up with each other.  There were eleven of us in the "living room" of my parents’ room at the Embassy Suites and since we were fueled by affection and alcohol, it kept getting louder and louder--even surpassing the decibels in my seventh period Civics class...

Friday

Dad and Ron: We enjoyed our Friday morning visit to Arlington National Cemetery and the Changing of the Guard.

Mom: My first best moment was getting off the metro [at the Arlington National Cemetery metro stop after we had visited the Cemetery] to come around the corner and there stood Lindsay and Garv, I thought they were meeting us at the capitol, they are good at surprises!  

Mom: My second best moment was the Capitol tour on Friday afternoon since Tony lined it up and knowing he spent some time in that building one summer. I also liked the Capitol because it was the first event we took as our big group. 

Most of the group after our Capitol tour

Tony: I enjoyed identifying the number of historical errors our tour guide made during the Capitol tour. I didn't correct them since doing so would have made me sound like a know-it-all jackass, and besides, I'm the only one who noticed them.  Here is a very important tip to anyone traveling to DC: arrange tours through your Senator or Representative!!! In some cases, especially with the Capitol tour, it will save you some waiting in line.
Garv: Visiting the monuments and memorials on the National Mall at night.  Something every U.S. citizen should do. 

Nick: Visiting the monuments in the National Mall at night.  I have seen them all in the day before, but it was a unique experience to see them all lit up at night.

Ron: Seeing the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

Tony the Narrator: Ron is a Vietnam veteran.  Also, the brother of one of his friends was killed in Vietnam and we were able to find his name on the wall.  I know that was also very meaningful to Ron.

Saturday

Nick: Visiting the highest point in DC, Point Reno.  Not only that, but having a lively debate about whether to count it as a state highpoint.
Tony the Narrator: Nick and Jill were the only ones to visit Point Reno.

Bee at the Metro stop

Tony: I really enjoyed pre-game festivities.  We started at a well-known College Park bar which had a bunch of Hawkeye fans.  Then Brian and his friends met us at the bar and we proceeded through campus to a Hawkeye tailgate.  We drank Coors Light courtesy of friendly Hawkeye fans and were very well-prepared for the game.

Meeting Hawkeye fans at RJ's



The Baack's at the tailgate

The Klein's at the tailgate

Dad: The game.

Mom: My third best moment was game day, seeing the university, being together at the game (in spite of the loss).

Tony: In a perverse way, I enjoyed the game.  Did I drop a couple hundred F-bombs? Check (that's NOT an exaggeration). Did I bitch about Greg Davis and Ferentz?  Check. Did Mom and Lindsay yell at me or give me dirty looks?  Check.  Did I yell back at them for somehow thinking I would change my comportment at Hawkeye games?  Check.  Did I threaten some sort of boycott? Check.  Did I pout like a child who's just been grounded?  Check.  Did I put all of my Hawkeye gear in a pile and threaten to burn it?  No, I did not.  I only did that when I was ten.

Bee: And finally, third and two…just because.

Ron: Do not forget "third and two.”

Tony the Narrator: “Third and two” refers to the first play of the fourth quarter when Iowa had the ball.  During that drive, and in the previous drive, Iowa had been running the ball down Maryland’s throat.  So what does Greg Davis (Iowa’s offensive coordinator) call?  A pass! WTF.  What does Jake Rudock (Iowa’s QB) do?  Throw long.  And the check-down was open for the first down.  Ironically, Rudock has been critiqued by Iowa fans for throwing to the check-down receiver too often.  Of course, the time he should have checked down, he didn't.  So for the rest of the trip, Ron kept talking about and asking people about “third and two.”  Especially our next two events of the night...




Lindsay: Our Embassy Suites “Manager's Special”…always fun when mom is there!
Tony the Narrator: No one loves deals more than mom.  The Embassy Suites "Manager's Special" are complementary beverages and snacks for happy hour. And she absolutely loves it. We took advantage of this on Friday night and Saturday night.
Tony: Everyone, and especially me, getting their "money's worth" at the Saturday night Manager's special.  Hey, we had a lot of ridiculous and pathetic Hawkeye football to discuss...

Dad: Eating at Chadwick's on King Street.


Lindsay: Our first night at Chadwick's...


Tony: Listening to Garv critique Lindsay the next day for ordering two $9 glasses of wine when she should have just ordered a bottle.  The wine would have been drunk...(I'm using drunk as a verb and not an adjective.)

Bee: King Street – I wish we could have spent more time down there.
Tony the Narrator: King Street is an area of Alexandria, VA full of shops and restaurants.  At one of King Street was our hotel and the Metro stop.  At the other end was the Potomoc River.

Moms and daughters on the King Street trolley

Sunday

Bee: Coffee with the ladies at that Starbucks on King Street.  I could have sat there for hours.


Tony the Narrator: On Sunday, we took a boat from King Street to Mount Vernon.  If you go to the DC area, Mount Vernon is a must.  The mansion, the interpretive center, the grounds...everything is remarkable.

Bee: Mount Vernon, listening to Martha Washington talk about “her life.”


Jean: Mount Vernon and Mrs. Washington stand out for me.


Tony the Narrator: At Mount Vernon, there was an historical actor who played Martha Washington and she was incredible.  I do a little historical acting in class, but it's about .1% as good as she was.

On the piazza looking at the Potomoc

Our view from the piazza

Bee: The monuments at night, especially the Jefferson (and the others we did on that last night) – there was just a sense of peace there that night.

The Jefferson Monument

The MLK monument

Jeanne: That the last nights walk, with the Jefferson, FDR and the MLK monuments was my best moment.

Monday

Tony the Narrator: On Monday morning, the St. Louis crew left early in the morning by road and Ron, Jeanne, and I left in the morning for noon flight from BWI to MSP.  The rest of the crew was able to enjoy a little more time in DC.

Mark: I most enjoyed the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, especially the fragment of Plymouth Rock, Mohammad Ali’s boxing gloves and the golden spike that joined the two railroads in the 1800’s.

Dad: I enjoyed the Americans at War exhibit at the Museum of American History and the Holocaust Museum.




Tuesday
Tony the Narrator: Mom, Dad, Mark and Jean left Tuesday morning and Garv and Lindsay returned to Chile that night.

Compilations and Summations
Jeanne: Overall what amazed me the most was how the whole trip happened from start to finish. It seemed like it came together in a couple of days. The execution of the plan flowed like a well oiled machine, mostly due to you and Garv. The flights, subway, tours etc. I will never forget "Iowa off" and "where is Lindsay?".

Bee: Getting our entire crew on and off the Metro…Iowa off!

Tony the Narrator: “Iowa off” refers to the phrase we developed so as to facilitate an efficient boarding and unboarding of a Metro car.  “Where is Lindsay?” refers to when Lindsay happened to get on a different metro car (on the same train) than the rest of the group right after the game.




Tony: Everyone immediately panicked.  I was not at all concerned—after all, she has had months of practice in Chile.  My lack of concern did not please Mom in the least.  Between the game and this, I had really made her happy...

Tony: I thoroughly enjoyed flying Spirit airlines.  Ron, Jeanne, and I each paid $180 a piece for round trip tickets.  I love Spirit because they make you pay extra for everything except a personal item.  Carry-on bag? $35.  Checked bag? $30.  On-flight beverages? It will cost you.  Magazines in the seat back?  Nope.  It was great.  I gave my parents a few clothes, but in actuality, everything I needed I carried in my backpack.  And there was actually room in the overhead bin.

Mom: I loved it all, it is hard to pin point, it was a wonderful trip with loved ones. The line of the trip had to be Tony explaining why he could not run for president! Glad he loves all of us!

Jean: I loved everything about the trip. Seeing and walking in the places where our history actually occurred was probably the best part.  Mount Vernon and Mrs. Washington stand out for me. But then, so does the Capitol, the monuments, family and friends.
Garv: Looking forward to the Iowa Hawkeyes at Rutgers on September 24, 2016.

Tony: I'm ready for 2016...Hopefully the Hawkeyes will play better on the road that season.

Studying Indians at Dartmouth, Part 2

Dartmouth and Hanover, NH

When attending these workshops, I go as much for the locale as for anything else.  Dartmouth was appealing because it was Ivy League school deep in the heart of New England.  Normally, I'd have some great take-aways comparing regions of the country, but because I was almost exclusively on a college campus and the adjacent downtown area, my basis for comparison is college towns and not regions.

Dartmouth is one of eight Ivy League institutions.  Undergraduate tuition per year is $48,000 per year.  PER YEAR.  So students who attend Dartmouth are paying a great deal for that Ivy League education.  And if parents paying that much for the education, they’re not going to want Johnny and Susie texting home and complaining about the food and dorms. 

Thus, of all the workshops I’ve been to this had the best food and housing.  All the cafeteria food was great, but there were also two other cafes on campus where we could purchase items.  And we had $250 put on our cards for the week and I couldn’t spend it all no matter how outlandish I got, even though one lunch was almost $30 (spicy tuna rolls, salmon rolls, three twelve-ounce milks, a smoothie, and a banana). The dorms were also very nice.   There were twenty-eight people at the seminar and we each had out own room that was normally for two students.  The bathrooms and showers are normally communal (four residents per bathroom and sixteen per shower if my observations were correct) but because of the way my room was situated, I had my own bathroom and shower. 

For $48,000, there were also other perks we had access to.  Dartmouth has public wifi accessible all over campus and it was always very strong.  It was so strong that it worked throughout most of downtown.  All of the classrooms had so much technology that no one could figure out how to work it except the tech guys.  And even though Dartmouth only has 4000 undergraduates (Univ of Iowa has 21,000; Ole Miss has 16,000 (not all in Oxford)) and 2000 graduate students (Univ of Iowa has 9000; Ole Miss has 6000 (not all in Oxford) about  it seemed to me they had more buildings than Ole Miss and as many as Iowa. 

There are other amenities available for students on the Connecticut River (a mile from campus) such as canoeing and kayaking (available to the public) and a sun tanning area (wisely not available to the public in order to keep out the creepers).  After the last day of the workshop, a few people asked me if I wanted to go canoeing and I eagerly agreed.  We rented a canoe for $10 and paddled 45 minutes down the river and then 45 minutes back up.  Though using the term river is somewhat loose because it's dammed up so it's really more of a lake... But it was a great time!

Below is the libary.  This is the Dartmouth's version of the obligatory "building outline that's on every piece of university stationary." Iowa has the Old Capitol and Ole Miss has the lyceum.

Hanover has 15,000 people and the downtown is in a two block by two block area.   There are only five bars there, all of which are also restaurants.  There was a groups of us that went for beers every night but every place was pretty quiet, even Friday and Saturday night.  Obviously, it’s different in the summer than it would be in the school year, but it was much quieter than Iowa City or Oxford are in early August.  All of the restaurants/bars served interesting fare, rather than just bar food, which makes sense considering the socio-economics of the campus and community.  There was no Airliner or Rib Cage type place...and there certainly wasn't a Union, Fieldhouse, or Library...

Studying Indians at Dartmouth, Part 1

During the first week of August I attended a Gilder Lehrman American History teacher seminar in which I studied American Indians for a week at Dartmouth College, an Ivy League school, in Hanover, New Hampshire.  This was my second GL seminar and my eighth of these types of seminars overall (the other six were through the NEH).  I have now studied Pilgrims and Indians, George Washington, Mark Twain, FDR, Immigration in New York City, Latinos in California, the Civil War, and now American Indians.

When I was an undergraduate at the University of Iowa, I made American Indian History my de facto specialization.  It wasn't my specialty at Ole Miss, but I did manage to take a course on it.  Since I don't teach American History, my interest in this subject is not sated through my curriculum.  Thus, this was the perfect opportunity to learn, review, and reframe American Indian History and figure out ways in which I can incorporate it into my World History, Western Civilization, Geography and Civics courses.  Moreover, the professor leading the seminar, Colin Calloway, was a professor whose works I had read as an undergraduate.  He's one of the most prolific professors there is, publishing a new book about once every other year.  So it was a great opportunity to learn from him for a week.

The content in each of these workshops was/is immensely interesting and useful for teachers and is the reason I go. I will highlight some of the content that struck me for one reason or another. 

Part 1: The Content

A. A Brit as an expert on American Indians: Professor Calloway: Back in undergrad, the first time I read the biographical snippet on one of Professor Calloway’s books, I was immediately struck that he was a Brit writing about American Indian History.  That seemed odd.  But then I realized that there are lots of Americans who specialize in British history…or French, Russian, Chinese, African, Latin American, etc, etc.  I had gotten over that, but it’s something he obviously has to address quite frequently.  And it makes more sense one realizes that the United States has had 238 years (1776-2014) of relationships with American Indians.  The British had 260 years (1607-1867 (Jamestown to Canada’s independence) of relationships with American Indians.

Dr. Calloway discussing a Yanktonai Sioux headdress that is in the collection at the Hood Museum at Dartmouth.  The headdress is from the mid 1800s and was probably obtained from southeast South Dakota, northwest Iowa, or southwest Minnesota.  There wasn't a ton of information on it, but it was obviously of great interest to me.

B. Indians in US History: Usually when Indian History is taught, it starts from the East with Columbus, John Smith, the Pilgrims, etc encountering Indians in the East and then Americans interacting with Indians as they moved west.  Instead, Indian History should start in the center of the country, particularly with Indians in the Mississippi, Ohio, and Missouri River valleys before 1492.  Most teachers don't do this, but I already do, so it was good that my approach was reinforced.

C. Indians and Colonial America: A quote from Dr. Calloway when discussing the interaction between the sexes of each group: "People spend more time in bed together than trying to kill each other."  Titillating, of course, but he said it in the framework of the Iroquois spiritual world in which men and women both had power--men had the power to take life (hunting, war) and women had the power to give life (childbirth, farming).  Thus, before the Iroquois went to war, they would spend days working themselves into an emotional and spiritual state.  Part of this was abstinence because if they were going to take life, they couldn't mix with the force that gives life.  However, Dr. Calloway pointed out that contrary to the popular image of Indians as warriors who scalped white men and raped white women, most of the time they were not in the warrior-mode.  And that's when he made the statement about people in bed.

D. Indian Treaties: When Indians and Europeans started negotiating treaties, they operated under different assumptions concerning the land.  Indians initially believed that they were giving Europeans the opportunity to use the land, not own it or possess.  Indians, of course, would eventually figure out how Europeans and Americans interpreted the treaties.  Indians also had to come to understand the power of the written word.  In Indian diplomacy with each other, there was not the same finality to negotiations as there was when Europeans conducted diplomacy with each other.  Europeans and Americans, however, because of the permanency of the written word, regarded treaties with a finality that Indians didn't.  So even if there wasn't malice on the part of Europeans and Americans, there were often vast cultural differences that were very disadvantageous to Europeans and Americans

E. Indian Gifts: In Indian society, the most powerful were usually the poorest because they gave away everything they had in order to create as many bonds of reciprocity as possible.  To Euro-Americans, gift-giving did not have the same meaning since power came from the accumulation of goods.  This is not as foreign of a concept as it seems.  Modern politicians have made an art of giving things away in order to increase their power.  Modern politicians, however, do not impoverish themselves in the process...

F. Indian Country Before Lewis and Clark: When Lewis and Clark went through Indian country from 1804-1806, they were unsure of what was between the Mandan villages in present-day North Dakota and the Columbia River in Oregon.  This area, however, had been significantly affected by guns, smallpox (and other diseases), and horses brought by Europeans only about a hundred years before.  Guns entered the plains from British fur traders in the north.  Horses entered the plains from the Spanish in the south.  Smallpox entered from both directions. The Indian world Lewis and Clark entered had been drastically changed.

G. The three best anecdotes from the Lewis and Clark expedition were all things I'd already taught when I was at IKM (I don't teach them anymore because I don't teach American History): a) Lewis and Clark spent the winter of 1804-1805 in the Mandan villages.  Indians had very different views on sexuality than Americans and Europeans and many Plains  Indians believed that one's power could be transferred via sex.  Clark's slave, York, was believed by many Indians to possess immense power.  So York had a very enjoyable winter... b) One of the biggest problems during the whole expedition was mosquitoes.  The journals are full of complaints about them.  in Lewis's journal, he spelled mosquito thirty-eight different ways!  There was no standard English at the time.  c) There was one point during the expedition when Lewis wanted to speak to a Salish Indian.  So Lewis made a statement in English.  Labiche, one of the men on the expedition, then translated it into French.  Charbonneau, Sacagawea's husband, translated it into Hidatsa.  Sacagawea translated it into Shoshone.  A Shoshone finally translated it into Salish.  So: English-->French-->Hidatsa-->Shoshone-->Salish

H. Cherokee vs Cherokee: We spent a full day learning about Cherokee Removal, but  rather than focusing on the Trail of Tears and horrors and duplicity committed by Americans, Dr. Calloway had us focus on the debate within the Cherokee community.  Among the Cherokee, there were some who begrudgingly and reluctantly accepted removal once it was evident that the only other option was a war against the US they were sure to lose.  Others, however, opposed removal and this split caused significant acrimony within the Cherokee nation.  The division existed, of course, because of the presence of Americans, but Dr. Calloway's point was to complicate our view of history rather than see Indian relations with the US as a simple "Indians are good and Americans are bad" dichotomy.

I. Indian Empires: When we think of empires, it's usually of Rome, China, or Britain.  However, by 1850 the Comanche in the southern plains and the Sioux in the northern plains, because of the horse and gun culture, had also created empires in that they subjugated their neighbors, demanded tribute, and exercised suzerainty over a vast territory.  This mental model is important because it recasts the vision of what was happening in on the plains when Americans began settling there.

J. "Kill the Indian to Save the Man": In the late 1800s, Henry Pratt, the founder of the famous Carlisle Indian Boarding School in Pennsylvania, promoted a policy in which Indian culture would be wiped out in order to assimilate Indians into American society, thus ending Indian culture.  In the 1950s and 1960s, the Bureau of Indian Affairs wanted to promote assimilation and improve Indians' quality of life by encouraging them to move off the reservations and into urban areas.  Ironically, both policies had the effect of strengthening Indian cohesiveness.  Each of these policies brought Indians from different nations together and gave them a common language, English.  These Indians could share with each other their experiences with the US government and American people.  Moreover, they could work together to promote causes, protest injustices, and, most importantly to them, keep their culture alive.

CHILE!

I spent a total of two weeks in Chile.  Last year, I went to Europe and I described the whole trip in the form of a rankings.  To wrap-up my trip to Chile, I'm going to do the same because it allows me to relive the great experiences and write about a few experiences that didn't fit into the themes of my other posts.  Unlike my Europe trip, all of my experiences were great because I wasn't at the mercy of a tour company. I'm hoping I didn't forget something...

Awesome Experiences

1. El Cuadro Winery: I dedicated an entire post to this experience.  I may have mentioned something about a carving...

2. Bocanariz:  My top two experiences are oriented around wine...Well, I'm in a country that has a climate conducive to making wine.  What did you expect me to enjoy the most?

House Carmenere (big glasses) and a Carmenere flight (smaller glasses)

Bocanariz is a wine restaurant in the Lastarria restaurant district near downtown Santiago. Two of Garv's co-workers recommended it and it exceeded their recommendations.  Lindsay and I went there for lunch after seeing some sights in downtown Santiago.  It had the best wine, best food, and was relatively inexpensive (two three-course meals, two glasses of wine, and two flights of wine for about $50).  Our first wine was Carmenere, and frankly, we couldn't tell the difference between them, but they were all good.  Our second flight was a Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Syrah.  All of them were good.  The food was also phenomenal.  I had salmon:

And this was dessert--lemon pie.

And they had this awesome sign...I was actually only at the happy level...

I wish I could be more eloquent, but some things are more experiential and cannot be captured in text.

3. Skiing: It also has a post of it's own. Skiing in July...

4. Boat Ride: #7 in this post

5. Tiramasu: This was a stylish pizza restaurant near Garv and LG's place that is very popular--especially among women...Garv, LG, and I arrived at about 9:00 pm and there was an hour wait so we went next door and had some wine.  We were seated at 10:00 and had a bottle of wine and we each had a pizza.  Once, again...see the last sentence of #1.

6. National History Museum: there's a paragraph about it in this post.  This probably wouldn't be as high on other people's list, but it's my list...

7. The Coast: #5 and #6 in this post. Living in the Midwest, there's always something alluring about the ocean.

8. Memory Museum: See this post. Chile had a dictatorship from 1973-1990.  Garv and LG would not have gone to live there then...

9. Da Dino: the last picture in this post.  We ate at Da Dino one of my first nights in Chile and then we ordered some carry-out after skiing.  So much greasy goodness.

10. "Good Morning, Santiago!" walking tour: described in this post.  If you travel to Chile, Garv and LG will take you on this tour.

11. Valparaiso: #8 in this post. At the time, I don't think I appreciated the uniqueness of Valparaiso enough.  It's geographic composition (constructed up hills) is extremely unique and off the top of my head, only Manhattan (NY, not KS), Venice, San Francisco, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, and Singapore are more unique.  The reason Valparaiso isn't as well known is that it's only 800,000 and is no where near as influential as those other cities.

12. Daily Schedule: During the weekdays, LG and I had a pretty standard schedule.  Wake up at 9:00.  Leave for the metro at 9:30.  Tour or museum at 10:00.  Lunch at 2:00.  Nap, lounge in the sun, or work out in the late afternoon.  Go out at 8:00. Eat at 9:00.  Bedtime at 1:00 am (probably 11:00 pm for LG).  It's the perfect schedule for me.  I wish we did this in the US.

13. Sur Patagonia: described in this post. I ate wild llama...

14. Mexican food: In high school, Garv and I were part of a Spanish class trip to Mexico.  One of the things that we both vividly remember is eating "pig off a board" in some small town.  The guy literally had a pig on a board and cut off the meat and put it in a tortilla.  It was so good.  Garv and Diego had found a Mexican restaurant in which they cut meat off a stick.  It was also awesome.  Sorry no pics...

15. Cerro San Cristobal Hike #1: This was the first thing I did in Chile.  I was introduced to "Santiago's dogs." Though we only went a third or half of the way up, it was a great way to stretch out my legs after being crammed into a plane.

16. Fuente Alemana: The first place I ate at in Chile.  It was the perfect food after a long day of travel.

17. Earthquake! #10 in this post. I really debated where to put this.  I thought about putting it in the top 5...or the bottom 5.  But I probably shouldn't tempt Mother Gaia or whatever the hell personification of the natural world would be most appropriate.  So I put it in the middle.

18. Cerro San Cristobal #2: Since we didn't reach the top the first time, LG and I walked to the top a second time.  I call it a walk, and not a hike, because we walked up a paved road.  At the top is a church, a statue of the Virgin Mary, and some food stands.  I brought "Lindquist Herky" to the top because the University of Iowa College of Education is having a contest for most unique picture or something corny like that.  Normally I don't do crap like this, but I thought that two alums of the UI College of Ed with Lindquist Herky would be a good candidate to win.  So here's the pic:

Here's some other pics from up top:

Finally, here we are having a mote con huesillo which is a peach, peach juice, and barley or wheat.  It's the non-alcoholic national drink.  It was okay.

19. The first Saturday night in Santiago: see this post.  I can't think of anything significant to add.

20. Church: On the first Sunday night, we went to Church.  Chile is a very Catholic country and it was packed.  Mass is in Spanish but there are parts I could follow because it's not like there's that much variety in a Catholic mass.  The sermon, of course, I could not follow.  Garv and LG like church there because it helps them measure their progress in understanding spoken Spanish (which is MUCH harder than reading Spanish--I could read a lot of it but I rarely understood anything spoken).  Communion was hilarious.  There was no system and people went whenever they wanted.  People ran into each other to get to communion and get back to their pew.  We, of course, waited until the end.  But I couldn't stop laughing at the lack of a system and Garv's reaction to the lack of a system.

21. Cirkopolis: On July 17, LG, Garv, and I went to Cirkopolis at the Teatro Municipal de Las Condes, which is about a five minute walk from their aparment.  Cirkopolis is an acrobatic show somewhat like a Cirque de Soleil show.  It was almost all action and very little speaking so we could understand it.  That, however, was not the most entertaining element of the show.

Since we purchased tickets a few days before the show, we could only get singles and had to sit separately. As it turned out, Garv was in a balcony...I was in the fourth row dead center!...and LG was in the front row!  Or so we thought.  About five minutes before show, someone showed up with a ticket for my seat.  I didn't have my ticket because for some strange reason, the usher takes your ticket when you're seated (it's Chile, so don't ask).  So I go over to LG and tell her we had a problem.  So we rush up to the usher.  She tries to help us, but realizes they'd sold two tickets to the same seat.   In the meantime, someone else sits in LG's seat!  Obviously, the online system and ticket office weren't aligned...Chileans are not fond of efficient systems.  Alas, amazingly, the "jefe" somehow knows that there are two open seats in the twenty-fifth row so LG and I sat together. 

22. Cerro Santa Lucia: This is the smaller of two hills in Santiago and is in the heart of downtown.  Geographically, Santiago is hemmed in between two mountain ranges and it's a city of six million.  Thus, smog is a huge problem.  Since I'd arrived Chileans had told me I needed to wait until after it rained because the views would be amazing.  So the day after it rained, LG and I walked to the top of Cerro Santa Lucia and had this view:

23. The Fault in Our Stars: Garv and LG had wanted to see it so we did.  It was in English with Spanish subtitles so it wasn't a problem watching it.  John Green can write.  His interpretations of history, however, are not as good as his writing for young adults.  (Those last two sentences are strictly for the purpose of my history classes.)

24. Pre-Columbian Museum: See the Tuesday, July 8 part of this post.

25. Germany vs Brazil
26. Netherlands vs Argentina

See this post for both of the above. I was hoping these two would be higher.  I thought it would be better watching soccer in South America.  But then, I forgot, that soccer is boring.  I know there are lots of people on the soccer band wagon, but baseball has devoured all of my boring sport quota.

27. The Mall:  Chile has awesome malls.  I didn't buy anything because everything is more expensive in Chile except wine or beer.  It's a lightly populated country a significant distance away so that's why everything is so expensive.

28. Karaoke:  See #11 in this post.

29. Market Tour
30. Patrimonial Tour

The company that does the "Good Morning, Santiago!" tour, Spicy Chile, has two other walking tours.  The first one was a tour of the markets.  They're permanent farmers' markets where you can buy fish, meat, spices, vegetables, fruits, froot loops (yes, they have giant barrels of cereal), and paper products.  It's the grocery store.  Though they have regular grocery stores, too.  We probably didn't need a tour guide.  But I did have the obligatory Coke made with sugar rather than corn syrup.

For the Patrimonial Tour, we needed a guide, but he or she didn't show up.  We followed the route on the map but we needed narration to understand the significance of where we were.

31.  Santiago Public Library, National Library, National Archives

There wasn't anything very substantive here (at least in English) except this awesome map of the Americas in the 1860s.  But LG and I did take these pics outside the Santiago Library.  And I had eXpresso at lunch:

32. Fine Arts Museum

33. Moneda Cultural Center

DO NOT let post-modernists get a hold of anything or they'll fuck it up.  See the July 9 portion of this post.

34. Hotel Adventure: See #3 and #4 in this post. Do a Google search of the town you're planning on staying in.  And reserve a room before leaving on the trip.

FINAL (or not so final) THOUGHTS

Iowa is an awesome state.  When I was at Ole Miss I was the biggest homer ever.  Many Iowans are proud of their state.  Non-Iowans are either misinformed (Do you drive your tractor to work? har har har.  Is that where they grow potatoes? uh duh) or ignorant about Iowa.  Iowans, therefore, are very eager to show off their state and have outsiders see what we love about Iowa (that's one of the reasons Iowans love RAGBRAI).  Iowans want Texans, New Yorkers, Californians, Massachusettsians, Connecticutians, etc to regard Iowa positively.  So Iowans bombard them with the question "What do you think of Iowa?"

In Chile, the same phenomenon is in operation.  Chileans are very proud of their country, which they think is great, but others are often misinformed or ignorant of it.  They want to show it off, especially to Americans.  So I was asked frequently "What do you think of Chile?"  The answer to both of those questions is somewhat hard for the outsider to answer.  They're both great, but it's hard to articulate the justification for that answer.  Is Chile as incredible as Italy or France?  No.  Is Iowa as incredible as New York or California?  No.  Both Iowa and Chile, however, have a simplicity to them that is incredibly appealing, especially if someone is looking for simplicity in their daily lives. After moving back from Mississippi, my observation about Iowa was that it was easy to live there.  I think the same can be said about Chile.  Though that may not wow the outsider, over time, it makes both places great, especially for the people from there.

European Highlights (2013 Trip)

European Highlights: July 26-August 10, 2013

Introduction
For many summers, I had been saying that THIS was the summer I would go to Europe. This summer, I didn’t say that and I went. I had planned on traveling somewhere because I had a window between July 25 and August 11 in which to travel. In early July, I noticed that Contiki, a travel company for eighteen to thirty-five year olds, had a special on a trip in my available window. So I booked it because I wanted a guided tour for my first trip to Europe. It was a sprint through Europe and I saw many “highlights.”

Itinerary
Friday, July 26: Travel day: DSM-ORD and ORD to Heathrow.
Saturday, July 27: See London. Stay in London.
Sunday, July 28: Travel to Paris via the Dover to Calais ferry. See Paris. Stay in Paris
Monday, July 29: See Paris. Stay in Paris.
Tuesday, July 30: See French countryside. Stay near Lyon in a frat house that was purportedly a sixteenth-century chateau.
Wednesday, July 31: See Avignon. Go to the Beach. Stay in Antibes.
Thursday, August 1: See Nice. See Monaco. Stay in Antibes.
Friday, August 2: See Pisa. See Florence. Stay in Florence.
Saturday, August 3: See Florence. See Rome. Stay in Rome.
Sunday, August 4: See Rome. Stay in Rome.
Monday, August 5: See Venice. Stay in Venice.
Tuesday, August 6: See Munich. Stay in Munich.
Wednesday, August 7: See Dachau concentration camp. See Rhine Valley. Stay in small German town.
Thursday, August 8: See small Dutch towns. See Amsterdam. Stay in Amsterdam
Friday, August 9: See Amsterdam. Stay in Amsterdam.
Saturday, August 10: Travel Day. AMS-ORD, ORD-DSM, Drive back to Boji.

Ranking of cities
1. Paris: Some cities have monuments. Paris is a monument. It is a grand city and the square mileage of the city that is covered with eighteenth and nineteenth-century buildings is amazing. I can’t wait to reread David McCullough’s The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris now that I know some of the places he’ll be talking about.
2. Venice: What city will be destroyed first? Venice? New Orleans? Amsterdam? Seoul? Damascus? My money is on Venice. But it’s an amazing city…
3. Rome: You walk down the street and turn the corner and there’s something ancient. Then you turn the corner and there’s a gelato store. And then something ancient. Then some more gelato.
4. Florence: Some historians say that there was not a Renaissance or that its influence was very limited. If they haven’t been to Florence, they need to go. If they have, then they need to go again.
5. Nice: I laid out on the rock beach and swam in the Mediterranean. I liked the rocks much better than sand.
6. Amsterdam: It’s known for the red-light district, at least among young tourists, but I preferred the other areas of the city.
7. Munich: The city is relatively modern since most of it was bombed in WWII. They drink beer by the liter.
8. London: It’s low on the ranking primarily because I arrived there at 10:00 in the morning without much sleep. So I was not able to experience the city fully.
9. Cairo and Athens: I didn’t actually visit Egypt or Greece, but from the amount of Egyptian and Greek statues and artifacts in Paris, London, and even Rome, I wonder how there’s anything left in Egypt or Greece.

Great Experiences (ranked in order)
1. Colosseum and Forum in Rome: There’s a line from Gladiator in which one of the slaves says “I cannot believe men could build such things.” Even today, that line is true.
2. Wine, baguette, and crepes at a French Café: Of all the things I did in Paris, this was the most Parisian thing I did. Though the waitress was surprised I wanted wine instead of coffee at 9:30 in the morning. It was peaceful and I felt very refined and cultured. After reading #3 below, you’ll understand why France and Germany fought three wars between 1870 and 1940 and Germany won them all.
3. German Beer Hall in Munich: In 1929, Georges Clemenceau, the prime minister of France during WWI, wrote his memoir, Grandeur and Misery of Victory, which was then published posthumously. In it, he wrote that” I have sometimes penetrated into the sacred cave of the Germanic cult, which is, as every one knows, the Bierhaus. A great aisle of massive humanity where there accumulate, amid the fumes of tobacco and beer, the popular rumblings of a nationalism upheld by the sonorous brasses blaring to the heavens the supreme voice of Germany, Germany above everything! Men, women, and children…drink in long draughts the celestial hope of vague expectations.” Obviously, he wasn’t impressed. I was. I loved it. It was a lot of Germans sitting at picnic tables drinking massive amounts of beer—just like Remsen.
4. Unnamed small town in Germany: I thoroughly enjoyed the simplicity. We had a wine tasting. Then I walked around town. Then I had some wheat beer (in Germany, you have three choices: beer, dark beer, and wheat beer).
5. British Museum: One of the most brilliantly conceived books I’ve ever read is A History of the World in One Hundred Objects. In it, Neil MacGregor, the director of the museum uses one hundred objects to illuminate a particular aspect and area of world history. I teach about ten of the objects in class so I spent my time race around the museum taking pictures of these objects. I needed three days to see everything. I had an hour.
6. Louvre in Paris: It’s lower ranked because the British Museum had no admission price. I needed three days to see everything. I had three hours. But I did see Napoleon’s Coronation and a lot of people looking at the Mona Lisa.
7. The streets of Nice: They were more like alleys, but it amazed me the number of restaurants and shops there were.
8. Dachau: This was a German concentration camp near Munich. It was rather harrowing to see the crematorium.
9. Swimming in the Mediterranean: We swam in the evening as the sun went down. The air was hot and humid and the water was warm.
10. Wine at a café in Florence: For some reason, the group activity on our evening in Florence was to go to…a karaoke. WTF. So I went to café with a girl from Massachusetts and we drank wine. Much better.
11. Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam: Another museum! But when I go to American cities I have two places I want to see: a baseball game and the major art museum. So obviously, I was going to do that in Europe. Normally, I don’t enjoy Dutch art when I see it in American museums, but there’s a reason for that…the Dutch kept all of the good stuff in the Netherlands!
12. Vatican: Some people in our group saw the Pope make an unannounced appearance. I was still at the Forum.
13. Avignon, France: The Pope (or at least one of the Popes) lived here from 1309-1417. The fortress was much bigger than the cathedral. Obviously, the Italians weren’t happy about him living there.
14. Fountainebleu, France: This is a huge estate that a French king had built for his MISTRESS. It is amazing. It was a brilliant move by the king as women then competed with each other to be his official mistress. Yes, the kings of France had an official mistress. I didn’t get to go to Versailles so I can’t imagine what that’s like. No wonder the French destroyed the monarchy.
15. Tower of London: The Tower of London was the home of the British kings the same time that the Popes were in Avignon. The Popes were clearly more powerful.
16. Tourist Trap #1: Perfumery in Antibes: This is ranked as high as it is because the French woman explaining perfume to us looked exactly the way I would imagine a French woman explaining perfume to us would look. Of course, I didn’t have my camera.
17. Tourist Trap #2: Leather Shop in Florence. This is ranked as high as it is because the Italian woman explaining leather to us looked exactly the way I would imagine an Italian woman explaining leather to us would look. Of course, I didn’t have my camera.
18. Dover to Calais Ferry: This was my biggest surprise. The ferry was huge. It had almost everything—café, restaurant, bar, arcade, gambling, shopping, an observation deck that provided justification for bringing a jacket to Europe.
19. Tourist Trap Meals #1: French Cuisine in Paris: The food was really good, the wine was really good, and the atmosphere was great.
20. The French amusement park: This near our campground in Antibes (French Riveria). It reminded me Arnolds Park except their rides were much more dangerous. And there were pictures of naked women on the rides. Seriously. The French are not uptight.

Mediocre Experiences
21. Heineken Expierence: Just another brewery. Heineken dominates the European beer market. And it’s a really good beer.
22. Leaning Tower of Pisa: During the late Middle Ages and Renaissance, Pisa thrived economically. Then the river it’s on dried up diminishing economic activity. Now it’s a shithole. The Leaning Tower is a very apt metaphor for the city.
23. Trevi Fountain and Spanish Steppes: Like the Leaning Tower of Pisa, I’m not sure what the big deal was.
24. Tourist Trap #3: Stein shop: At least the guy here gave us the straight up sell job, skipping over the demonstration. And yes, he looked exactly the way I would imagine a German guy explaining beer steins to us would look. Fortunately, I didn’t have my camera.
25. Tourist Trap #4: Clog and cheese shop: At least I got to eat a lot of really good cheese.
26. Tourist Trap #5: Munich Bike Ride: At least the tour guides were funny and we ended it at a beer garden.

Sucky Experiences
27. Monte Carlo Casino in Monaco: High class casinos aren’t as interesting as casinos in, say, Emmetsburg. At least the drive from Antibes to Monaco was really cool.
28. Tourist Trap #6: Small Dutch town Bike Ride: I think we rode about a mile and it cost us about three hours of time we could have spent in Amsterdam.
29. Tourist Traps Meals #2: Italian Cuisine in Florence. The food was fine, but not worth whatever we paid for it.
30. Tourist Trap Meals #4: Chinese food in Amsterdam. The food was mediocre. The Chinese in Iowa was much better. And if you’re wondering why we ate Chinese in Amsterdam, it’s because the Dutch dominated Asian trade in the 17th century.
31. Security at the Amsterdam Airport: Let’s just say that Europeans don’t have a 4th amendment.
32. Clubbing: It was a group activity in Paris, Florence, and Amsterdam. I only participated in Paris. I couldn’t hear or see a thing and it gave me a headache. Did I mention I was the oldest person on the tour—tour manager and bus drive included?
33. Eiffel Tower at night: This needs to be experienced with a woman.
34. Sex show in Amsterdam: There are people having sex right in front of you or doing other grotesque things. It was stupid and gross and I wasn’t entertained or turned on. The people having sex didn’t look like they were having fun—they were just doing a job.
35. Contiki Chateau: This was a huge fucking (Sorry, Mom. Sometimes the F-bomb is the only word that will do.) disappointment. Going into the trip, I was most excited to experience wine country. Instead we’re bussed out to the middle of nowhere to the “chateau” which was a big frat house where some people got obnoxiously drunk.

My impression of European culture, society, politics, and economics
There’s a reason the British North American colonies declared and fought a war for independence: SPACE. It seems to me that everyone crams into as small an area as possible, even in small towns. I suspect it’s because there was/is not a lot of land available to the lowest four quintiles of the population.
It’s amazing the living conditions and the price of goods that Europeans will put up, but I suppose it’s all relative. Even though I really missed cold milk and air conditioning, it was a great trip. I can’t wait to go again—only this time I’m planning it on my own.

September 11

One of the reasons I love history is that while it is possible to acquire more knowledge to create a clearer picture of the past, there are always new things to learn about that expand or rearrange that picture.  Traveling to Chile has added to that picture.  In the United States, September 11 means the terrorist attacks of 2001.  In Chile, September 11 means the coup d'etat (violent overthrow of a government) of 1973.

Before visiting of Chile, here's what I knew or didn't know about the coup:
1. Chile was becoming more socialist as the government was nationalizing (a government takeover of a private business or corporation) industries.  I didn't know who the president was.
2. It was replaced by a dictatorship led by Pinochet.  I didn't even know his first name.
3. The US, particularly Nixon's secretary of state Henry Kissinger and the CIA, was somehow involved.
4. Hard-core leftists (especially those who would consciously describe themselves as Marxists) in the US really hate (hate might not be a strong enough word) Kissinger because of the Chilean coup.
That's it.  That's all I knew, which is almost nothing.

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The touristy things that Lindsay and I did that prompted this particular post were one of the first and one of the last things we did in Santiago.  On Monday, July 7, we did a walking tour of Santiago (the subject of a previous blog post) which started at the statue of Salvador Allende, the president of Chile who was overthrown and killed/committed suicide on September 11, 1973.  On Thursday, July 17, we visited the Museum of Memory and Human Rights, which was dedicated to the horrors of the seventeen year dictatorship that followed the coup.

Allende Statue Outside La Moneda

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Entrance to the Museum of Memory and Human Rights

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The drive from the airport to Garv's apartment offers a stark contrast in worlds.  Near the airport are shanty-towns of shack after shack (I didn't get a picture), common to all Latin American cities .  Garv, however, lives in an area of Santiago called Las Condes which the safest and cleanest area of any huge city I've been to.  Las Condes is the financial center of Chile and is nicknamed Sanhattan.  There are a lot of wealthy retired Chileans and expatriates living and working there temporarily.  And both of these areas are much different than Santiago's downtown.

The view of Las Condes from their terrace at night.

The view of Las Condes from their terrace during the day.

It was the huge disparity between poverty and wealth that Salvador Allende tried to alleviate when he was elected in 1970.  Allende was the first socialist democratically elected in the Western Hemisphere (Castro had violently seized power in Cuba in 1959).  His primary objectives were to nationalize the copper mines (which were partially owned by US companies) and health care, redistribute land, and provide free education.  However, the economy tanked during the three years of his presidency mostly because of decline in the world copper market, spiraling inflation, price controls, and mandatory wage controls.  Basic food commodities increased in price dramatically and could only be found on the black market since his regulations had failed.  Allende had campaigned and governed on the basis of ending foreign influence in Chile and empowering the people and workers.  Instead, his policies wrecked Chile's economy, like Marxist policies always do.

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I love political ads.  I'm serious.  You should love them, too.  What's the alternative?  Robespierre and the Committee of Public Safety.  Stalin.  Hitler.  Etc. In these systems, political opponents were harassed and treated violently.  There were no elections or elections were rigged.  Secret police were a common threat.  Governments changed by coup d'etats or assassinations rather than through elections.  So learn to love them Iowans, because you're going to continue seeing a lot of them.  And we're lucky it's possible to so openly, blatantly, and publicly critique public officials.

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Because the nationalization of industries and redistribution of land, Allende's opponents wanted him out of office.  He proposed a national referendum (an election) on whether to remove him or not, but his opponents wanted to ensure that he was removed from office.  On September 11, 1973, Chile's government was overthrown.  Tanks rolled in and airplanes bombed things and they took over the Moneda and everything.  You can Youtube "Chile Coup" and to see news coverage from the period and retrospectives from today.


It's surreal that something like this happened so recently.  It's surprising that Chile isn't completely fucked up today, especially since it subsequently endured seventeen years (1973-1990) of a dictatorship under Agosto Pinochet filled with executions, assassinations, torture, disappearances, and suspension of civil rights.  Anyone my age and older lived through the dictatorship and have memories of it.  According to Garv, however, it's not something Chileans talk about because there are very strong feelings about it.

There's a huge debate on whether Allende was assassinated or committed suicide on the day of the coup.  I'm not sure, and frankly, it only matters if one's concerned with how Allende looks in the historical record and the popular culture.  I'm not sure how he's regarded in the historical record because I've only read one book about Chile.  In popular culture, however, there seems to be at least a segment of the population that regards Allende very highly.  Allende's glasses, in particular, have become a symbol of him as his broken glasses came to represent the coup while his glasses have come to represent the end of the dictatorship.

Allende's glasses in the Museum of National History

Example of an Allende T-shirt Common in Museum Gift Stores

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One of the most interesting aspects of Chile's interpretation of the coup and dictatorship was that there was no mention of the US's role.  Obviously, my searching for a mention of the US's role is an example of my American-centrism.  To most Chileans, the coup was mostly a Chilean event, which it was.  But the coup and the US's role in it was also an example of a hot war in the Cold War.  Most Americans are aware of the Korean War and Vietnam War but they may not know why the US fought there--to stop the spread of communism.  Americans are aware of US intervention there because they involved large-scale military intervention.  Many Americans, however, are not aware of CIA sponsored or assisted coups: Iran in 1953 (to prevent the nationalization of oil companies--that's the reason Iran hates us so much today); Guatemala in 1954 (to keep Chiquita bananas under American ownership); Cuba in 1961 (the Bay of Pigs failure); and, of course, Chile in 1973 are the most well-known.  In each case the CIA wanted to remove a leader so as to prevent the spread of communism, but in exchange the US supported a dictator because, hey, a right-wing dictator is better than a left-wing leader nationalizating oil fields, banana plantations, copper mines, or the whole frickin country.  The extent of the US's role in Chile is hotly debated, though the US did have a role. But whatever the case, the major problem with the Cold War is that the US and USSR used other countries for their ideological battles.  However, as indicated by the lack of mention of the US's role in Chile's interpretation of the coup, within these countries the battle was not about the geopolitics of the Cold War, but instead a political, social, economic, and cultural contest within those countries where the people are looking out for their own welfare, not to color in their country red or blue on a map.