Genoa

Last week I visited Genoa, Italy, in Liguria, to attend a professional workshop on Script to Program Evolution (STOP), and then the European Conference on Object-oriented Programming (ECOOP). Mike Furr, a Maryland student with whom I have worked closely, presented our paper at the workshop, and then we both stayed on for the conference.

We stayed the at the Hotel Bristol Palace. It is a fabulous hotel. My room was quite grand, with probably a 15-foot high ceiling, and large bathroom. Alfred Hitchcock reportedly stayed there during the filming of To Catch a Thief, and was inspired by the spiral staircase for his movie, Vertigo.


STOP was held at the Bristol, while ECOOP was just up the street at the Palazzo Ducale. The original building dates from the 1300's and gets its name from being the Seat of the first Doge (or Duke) or Genoa. The lecture hall in which the presentations were given was pretty amazing, with paintings and sculptures covering the high walls and ceilings.

The Conference reception was held Wednesday night at the local University, the Università degli Studi di Genova, which also boasts some pretty grand architecture, with lecture halls of a similar style to the Palazzo Ducale. Here's the entrance courtyard to the University:

The architecture and layout in the city reminded me of Florence and Venice, and perhaps a bit of Nice (France). There were broad streets and open spaces connected by lots of narrow alleys cutting in unpredictable directions. Within the public part of the city, and within various Palazzos there were some beautiful courtyards.

Like Nice, there were plenty of pastel-colored buildings. Because the city is on the coast and built up the face of coastal hills, there are some pretty great views.

I was constantly astounded by the incredibly ornate churches I would stumble across. I'd be walking for a while and notice that the building walls next to me had no doors, and on rounding the corner would discover they were part of a church. Peeking inside, I would inevitably be floored by incredible sculpture, paintings, and decoration. Here is the interior of Chiesa di San Pietro, a small church and pretty non-descript from the outside:

Just on the other side of the Palazzo Ducale was the Cattedrale di San Lorenzo, the Cathedral of St. Lawrence. The striped marble design reminded me a bit of the Duomo Cathedral in Florence (but looking at the picture now, I see the allusion is strained). Again, quite striking.

I really enjoyed the local cuisine, particularly trofie al pesto, and the various focaccia breads. Pesto apparently originates from Liguria, and I must say it was really good! The coffee wasn't bad either!

When I left for Genoa, I didn't really know what to expect. I'd heard of the city before, but other Italian cities I knew seemed more important or glamorous, like Rome, Venice, Naples, Florence, etc. I thought perhaps that Genoa was therefore a bit like Baltimore, in the USA. It's a city a lot of people have heard of, but probably not high on their list of US cities to visit. I was pleasantly surprised! And interestingly, I found out that Genoa is actually twinned with Baltimore! Neat coincidence ...

Wash your hands, wash your hands, wash your hands

Well, the swine flu has reached Cambridge, and it has reached our home. I don't know any statistics, but both of our schools have reported cases this week. Annie is currently being treated for the swine flu. The boys have had fevers during the past week, but haven't needed further treatment. Thankfully, it is a mild illness for Annie; she hasn't been miserable. Mike was in Italy all week, so it was stressful for me to have children staying home from school, being sent home from school, getting picked up from school, visiting the doctor and needing a prescription, all with no Daddy and no car. Fortunately, we are blessed with good friends and neighbors here, so the hardship was substantially eased by their help.

The best advice out there: Wash your hands, wash your hands, wash your hands.

Can you believe we are still in school?

Even Mom is ready for school to end. It just doesn't feel like summer with uniforms and packed lunches, and "will we need our sweaters today?". Luckily, 17 July is the last day of class.

The end of the school year has been full of special events like discos, picnics, field trips, and fairs. Both schools hosted summer fayres, or fetes, or whatever you like to call them, on consecutive Saturdays. They are fun, school community parties, so to speak. Both events aimed to raise funds, but I think the main goal is to bring the school families and staff together in fellowship.

St. Alban's Summer Fayre had an international theme. Along with another American family in the school, we put together a display of some facts and snacks related to the USA. The student classes each performed a song or dance. Timmy describes his group's performance:

In my class we studied the ancient Greeks last term. In PE class we practiced our performance. We started off thinking of two things that an ancient Greek might have done in daily life, such as fetching water from the well and putting the water jug on your head to carry it there and back. Then we started getting into partners, and we decided which [actions] we would perform. I picked Aidan as my partner, and we wanted to demonstrate the Olympics, but Mr. Tebbutt (my teacher) told us that we would all be doing the Olympics in another part of the dance. So Aidan and I decided to show how we were getting the stadium ready for the Olympics like carrying a heavy crate and putting it down. The four house teams in the school (Galatians, Ephesians, Thessalonians, and Corinthians) represented different cities for the Olympics. The Corinthians were the Corinthians. The Thessalonians were the Spartans. The Ephesians were the Olympians. And the Galatians (my group) were the Athenians. We acted out wrestling, running, javelin throwing, discus throwing, long jumping, and high jumping. I was the javelin thrower for the Athenians. We also acted out saying, "Good game, good game" to each other. Then we all did our bedtime activities, like having dinner. I polished my sword. When the performance came, it was a big success.


Above Timmy is waking up for his day in Athens. Below, Annie joins her classmates dancing to La Bomba. Annie also participated in Irish Dancing with her after school club.
Following the show, there were games, raffles, and refreshments.

Mike was in charge of the huge inflatable slide.

St. Philip's Summer Fete was held on the 4th of July, which gave us something festive to do on our holiday. Minus the class dances, it was much the same as St. Alban's Fayre. Below, Colin throws a wet sponge at one of his teachers.

Face painting is always a popular activity, and Annie and Colin never pass up the opportunity to put on an alter ego.



Both events were fun, more so because we enjoyed them with many of the friends we have made here over the past year. Our looming departure will be bittersweet.

Hunstanton: English Seaside revisited

Tim and Anne's school, St. Albans, went on a field trip yesterday to the resort town of Hunstanton, Norfolk, on the English seaside. I went on the trip as well, as a parent chaperone.

We were at Old Hunstanton beach, which abutts some very interesting cliffs, and is dotted with sand dunes.

It was simply a gorgeous day: quite warm, but with a blissfully cool breeze coming across the sea. If you looked carefully, you could see the North Sea wind farm a bit out to sea, so it's obviously generally windy there.

The year 2's and year 4's seemed to have a really good time. Digging in the dirt, or wet sand, was obviously a popular activity!

We'll be hitting the shores in Crete (Greece) at the end of July. We're looking forward to seeing how the beaches compare!

The English Seaside

Today we went to Felixstowe, a port city in Suffolk on the North Sea, just over an hour's drive from Cambridge.

Our neighbor, Steve, has insisted for a while that he must take us to the proper English seaside before we leave. I went over last night for some reason, and he surprised me with the idea of going today.

We planned to take the 11:12am train as his car couldn't hold the five of us and he and his girlfriend Rebecca. Unfortunately, after a slightly late start to the station, a slow ticket printing machine, and a scary episode involving Tim getting stuck in the ticket gate, we arrived at platform 6 just as the train started to pull away. The driver gave me a "sorry about that" kind of look as he shrugged his shoulders. Fortunately, I was able to get a quick a refund, and Steve was able to borrow a truck from his ex-wife, so with his car we had two cars to transport the seven of us. We ended up getting to the seaside about the same time we would have arrived by train.

We had a great time. We pic-nicked on Limoncello delicacies---bread, cheese, olives, Italian meats, sun-dried tomatoes, and cupcakes and other sweets. The kids climbed around on large rocks arranged along the shore, played in the sand, and splashed in the water. The water was cold at first, but felt nice after a bit.

The wind was strong enough and constant enough that I played frisbee with myself, throwing it up into the wind so that it came back to me.

Then Steve joined me and we had fun playing catch. It was particularly fun to dive for a slicing throw when you just land in the sand!

We finished off the trip at the amusements area a bit further down from the beach. They had a Karaoke bar, indoor golf, and a hall with lots of video games and slot machines (we didn't play these). They also had the kid-favorite 2p machines (which the proprietors referred to as "the two-Ps"). These are games in which you drop 2p coins through a slot, and the coin rolls amidst a flat pile of other 2p coins just in front of a mechanical sweeper that pushes them toward the front of the machine. The hope is to drop a coin in front of the sweeper so that it induces the whole pile to be pushed forward enough that heaps of coins fall into a collection tray below. They place toys on top of the pile, too, as an added enticement. All the kids were quickly addicted and spending into their allowance to play!

We arrived back in time for me to help the kids get ready for bed and then go to Steve's to watch the USA-Brazil soccer match. It was the final of the FIFA Confederation Cup, a World Cup warm-up. The USA shocked Spain last Wednesday to reach the final, and shocked Brazil by putting up a 2-0 halftime lead. But the Brazilians stormed back and won it 3-2. Despite the loss, it was a good match. And we had the reasonable consolation of some good curry, from our favorite take-away place Kismet Tandoori, to eat while watching the match.

A fun-filled day, to be sure!

Dublin

We have just under two months until we return to the US, so we have been trying to make the most of our proximity to Europe. Following on the heels of our trip to Paris, we recently visited Dublin, Ireland.

I began the week by attending PLDI 2009, the flagship conference in my main research area of programming language design and implementation. I was fortunate to have two research papers accepted for presentation, with the added privilege that they were the first two presentations overall. (My student and former student gave the talks. Being faculty, I haven't had the pleasure of giving a conference talk in many years.) The main hall was packed, which was both thrilling and nervewracking!

The conference was held at historic Trinity College, Dublin, in the heart of Dublin just south of the Liffey river.

TCD dates from 1592, founded by Queen Elizabeth I as England was further strengthening its political control of Ireland. The original Trinity College in Cambridge, which we have visited on several occasions, was founded by Elizabeth's father, King Henry VIII, in 1546. Fellows of Trinity College in Cambridge, such as Isaac Newton and Francis Bacon, are among the busts in the famous Long Room of the Old Library at TCD, which I toured. The Old Library also houses the Book of Kells, a famous transcription of the Four Gospels. It dates from about 800 AD, and is named for the Abbey of Kells that was its home for many centuries. The two Colleges look very different architecturally, despite their related origins; I'm much more impressed with the original. On the other hand, the TCD has its own Pub, the Pav, which serves a pretty good Guinness!

The conference ended on Thursday evening, so I moved out of the Trinity College dormitory room in which I'd been staying. I walked southward to Kilronan House to meet Kim and the kids following their afternoon flight from London. Kilronan house was a lovely place to stay: our room was spacious, and we appreciated the excellent breakfasts, free wifi, and the helpful, friendly staff.

We spent the next two and a half days touring Dublin. My favorite spot, which we hit on our first day, was the Guinness Storehouse. They claim that it's Ireland's top visitor attraction. They've done a brilliant job turning the old fermentation building into an interesting museum. The free pint of stout in the circular bar on the top floor, with a great view of the city, is a nice touch.

Several times in getting to/from our guesthouse we walked through St. Stephen's Green, a beautiful park south of Trinity College Dublin. Originally a garden private to the nearby residents, it is now a popular public park. We often stopped to relax and once to play on the playground.

On Friday evening we went to see the World Street Performance Championships, held at Merrion Square, quite close to where Oscar Wilde grew up. We saw two acts, both very entertaining, though neither won the competition as it turned out.

We did a little shopping on Saturday morning, in the shopping district near Grafton Street. Tim and Colin went to Argos and bought a Lego set while Kim bought herself a nice necklace.

Saturday afternoon we went to Bray, located on the eastern seaside about a 40-minute train ride from Dublin. While Kim and I relaxed, the kids played in the sand, splashed in the water, and collected smoothed rocks on the beach. We all had a whipped (soft) ice cream before we left. The place is fairly run down. Our theory is that it was once popular because it was the only gig in town. But now that flights from Dublin to the Mediterranean are cheap, many people are probably going someplace better.

Saturday night we had dinner at the Bleeding Horse, a nearly 400-year old pub in the Camden section near our guesthouse. The name apparently comes from the practice of farriers of cutting a vein in the neck of horses to reduce their blood pressure and calm them after a long ride. For Kim and me, the Pub provided our favorite meal of the trip, and one of many pints of Guinness! The family felt right at home, given our now-extensive experience with pub fare in the UK.

On Sunday, we attended Mass at Whitefriars', which holds the relics/remains of St. Valentine. It was nondescript on the outside, with some impressive monuments on the inside. Afterwards we had a coffee at The Bald Barista. We really enjoyed it, which is perhaps not surprising as it's been acclaimed as having the best espresso in Dublin, two years running.

For the remainder of the morning we wandered around Temple Bar, having a look at Christchurch and St. Patrick's Cathedral. (Sunday morning services prevented us from going inside.)
Finally it was time to go, so we caught a taxi to the airport and took the short flight back to London Stansted, and an easy train-ride back to Cambridge.

It's so nice how close we are to so many interesting places! And we're not done yet: Italy still remains for me, and we all go to Greece at the end of July ...

Grantchester

Springtime weather in Cambridge has been really nice. We decided to take advantage of it by spending an afternoon at Grantchester Meadows, a green area on the bank of the River Cam. You can see it was a popular idea. We picnicked, walked, climbed trees, and explored the town of Grantchester. Timmy even took a dip in the river. The real adventure was taking the children there by bike - about 4 miles each way. That's a lot of peddling for Colin's little legs. Everyone did very well. We felt like we'd really lived like the locals today.