Monday, August 1, 2011

Ghana in August

I go to Istanbul on 1 August. I will tour the city during the day. I have a hotel room in a nice place in the historical part of the city. On 2 August I fly out of Istanbul and arrive in Nigeria. I have a two hour layover in Nigeria and then I fly on to Accra, Ghana.

I have a paper to present at the Society for Pidgin and Creole Linguistics on 5 August. The weekend after we will take a trip to the forts and castles that were built on the Gold Coast. The week following that I will be on campus at the University of Ghana, Legon. I will interview Student Pidgin speakers to get some data for my dissertation.

All will go well. Pictures to come soon!

Sunday, April 3, 2011

West African Christian Church

I went to the West African Christian Church in Hamburg today to give a presentation on my project for LiMA (Linguistic Diversity Management in Urban Areas). They asked me to come up to the front after the service and talk a little about myself and what I want from the Ghanaian community.

It all went really well. I encouraged them to start a language program for the youth that would teach the Akan language. Then I told them I would be coming to the church to record Akan and ask questions about how often they use the language in Hamburg. Reverend Roberts will get the names of people who are interested in working with me and will set up a time for us to meet. Gracias a Dios que todo salío bien.



Thursday, March 17, 2011

to Freiburg and Zürich and back

We got to celebrate Carnival in Europe this year! We don't have a lot of pics of Carnival, but we do have plenty of us hanging out in Zürich and enjoying our week in Freiburg. We stayed around the Black Forest for eight days and then went down to Switzerland for the weekend. We stayed at Leonardo Botique Hotel in Zürich. We loved eating whole breaded pork and sautéed veal in mushroom sauce "Zürich style" at Johanniter.

Swiss Alps 
in front of a flower shop in Zürich
our hotel room at Leonardo's
our complimentary treats from Leonatdo's
overlooking Zürich Altstadt at night
a shopping street in Zürich


first class train ride down to Freiburg

Plaza in Freiburg
Freiburg Münster (Freiburg Minster)

Freiburg houses and the Black Forest
Freiburg and Black Forest
one of our hotels in Freiburg

Monday, February 28, 2011

Monday after the Oscars

I missed the Oscars last night because ABC doesn't stream video outside of the USA. Oh well. I read that Natalie Portman won best actress. I liked her role in Black Swan, but I didn't think that it was the best performance of an actress in 2010. Also, I saw The Kids Are Alright on one of my 9 trips to and from Puerto Rico in 2010. I thought the ending was unsatisfying. I would never have thought one of the actors from that movie would have been nominated for an Oscar! The movie was on par with The Jonseses, another one I caught flying over the Atlantic.

Glad Batman picked up his first. "I'm not wearing hockey pads!" 

Sunday, February 20, 2011

One more week till Ambar Comes

Only one week till Ambar gets here. I've been working hard these last three weeks trying to get a lot of leg work done on my project before Ambar gets here. We'll want to go out and spend time together in the city in March and April.

It's official, we're going to Switzerland on March 12-15th. April we'll be in Milan, Italy for Easter. But I'll post something on that when the time comes.

I eat a lot of soup in the house. It costs about 70 cents to buy a can of beef soup. I pour that soup into a pot and add another can of water and add salt to dilute the taste of water. I add a bag of fresh carrots, celery, and two other vegetables that I don't know the name of.  I add some tomato sauce to the broth too. That makes a pot of soup that can be eaten every day over the weekend. We'll see how Ambar likes it. She'll probably have some smart twist to put to it, which is always welcomed.

I want a chili recipe. I want some chili before it warms up. You gotta eat chili when it's cold outside! And we got chilly days here in Hamburg. Email me some simple chili recipes!

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Superbowl Sunday

It's SuperBowlSunday! I'll try to find the game in a sports bar in Hamburg. I saw it last year. We are about seven hours ahead of US central time, so the game should start after midnight here. Fun. 

Sunday, January 23, 2011

CORIOS, LLC


CORIOS, LLC
Expertise in communications and language services

Communications expertise               Language expertise
-journalism                                     -tesol
-broadcasting                                  -language training
-marketing                                      -grant writing
-public relations                              -translation
-graphic design                               -interpretation 
-printing                                         -editing
-software development                     -copywriting



CORIOS, LLC
Expertise in communications and language services

Communications 
Broadcasting: create commercials, educational videos, voice-over work 
Marketing: provide consultation on how to develop and effectively market ads and slogans for companies or persons 
Graphic Design: (re)design graphics for websites, companies, and clothing 
Printing: print designs on merchandise 
Public Relations: organize workshops and guest lectures

Language 
Instruction: teach English as a second language and improve pronunciation 
Training: provide training in linguistic analysis and improved rhetoric skills
Grant Writing: assist in writing successful grants
Editing: edit materials for publication 
Copywriting: promote businesses, persons, and ideas 
Translation: Spanish to English/ English to Spanish 
Interpretation: Spanish to English/ English to Spanish


Contact:             CORIOSPROJECT@gmail.com

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

LiMA office

LiMA provides the doctoral students with offices. I am posting pics of my office.

I got a 21 inch iMac with wireless keyboard and mouse.
 Where's Waldo?
 There he is!
 Eating a Turkish döner at my desk on a Sunday.
Here are the offices before the computers came in:

Down the stairwell from the 4th floor:
Out front during the snowstorm in January 2010:

Monday, January 17, 2011

Lüneburg, Germany

Ambar and I went to Lüneburg, Germany in October 2010. I had just started taking an intensive German class at the beginning of October and one of the requirements was to participate in a trip to a small town in Germany. It was great that it coincided with Ambar's visit in mid October.


Lüneburg is a small town located about 30 minutes outside of Hamburg. We enjoyed getting to see another part of Germany. It's so small that we were able to walk around the entire town in about 2 hours. It's nice to know that we can escape the big city if we want to.


We met my classmates in front of an electronics store called Saturn before boarding the train.

This is the typical look of a small German town, no?

We call this next one my European shot:

We had a delicious piece of pie and some coffee at a little cafe about halfway through our walk, and then a nice little snack just before we left the town.


Here is Ambar inside Michaeliskirche. St. Michael's Church started construction in 956. Johann Sebastian Bach was a choirboy at this church from 1700-1702. 

Ambar in front of the church:

 We did some 1 Euro shopping in a store that was on the main strip.

Monday, January 10, 2011

Europe in summer 2007

I backpacked through some of Western Europe in the summer of 2007. A paper that I was working on with my research group at the University of Puerto Rico in 2006 was accepted at the summer meeting of the Society for Pidgin and Creole Linguistics. The conference was held at the University of Amsterdam from 18 June to 21 June. I left San Juan on June 7th.  The first stop was Madrid. I stayed in Madrid for two days before traveling south to Sevilla. In Sevilla I found a nice bum to talk Spanish with.





 The Cathedral of Seville was impressive:



Next I made my way further south to Cádiz. I finally got to swim on the other side of the Atlantic. I stayed in Cádiz for a day and a night, and then I moved back north to go to Córdoba. Below are some pics from Córdoba.




After experiencing southern Spain for a weekend, I travelled north to return to Madrid.



I stayed in Madrid for another day and then moved on to San Sebastian, an eerie city on the north coast. I have one pic of San Sebastian. I took it as I was leaving in the morning.



I left San Sebastian to go to Barcelona for a couple of days. I hung out on Las Ramblas and saw Beastie Boys at the Sonar Festival 2007.





 Here is a video of some breakdancers on Las Ramblas.


Ambar and I are going to Barcelona as soon as we can. The flights from Hamburg are about 100 bucks roundtrip. How cool would it be to escape to Barcelona for the weekend!

I left Barcelona and traveled 8 hours to Paris. I stayed in Paris for a day, and then went on to Amsterdam for my conference. I don't have any pics of my team or me in Amsterdam! After staying in Amsterdam for four days, I went to meet up with an old friend in Belgium. I met him in Brussels and we went out for a night. The next day we drove to Antwerp and hung out at his father's house. I stayed in Antwerp for two days before moving back down to Paris.










After spending two lonely days in Paris, I boarded a train for a 12 hour ride over the Pyrenees. I spent the last two days in Madrid. I got to visit Museo de Prado and walk along Calle Atocha and Calle Sol one more time before flying back to San Juan. I spent three weeks in four countries. A nice adventure for a 25-year-old.

Sunday, January 9, 2011

blogging

I have lots of memories to blog about. I want to post my honeymoon pics from summer 2010, my trip to Luneburg, Germany back in October, and video from Spain and Amsterdam from 2007.

For now I will show you what my darling wife does when I start blogging.