Archive for January, 2009

Journal Heathrow 2009 – Jan 20th 3:28 Local time.

Ciao! Hello! Here I am! London, England sitting in the Heathrow airport trying to figure out why the free wireless internet connects but won’t bring up any pages… funny. Here I sit thousands of miles from home and my biggest concern is figuring out how to connect to the WIFI network in a foreign Airport. Strange, frustrating, Fun.

This morning we left home, My parents and I drove, met with my Aunt and Uncle, then met with our cousins from Chicago. Nice to see everyone. We got to have lunch together and Alex made it over from work for lunch. A good send off. A great last memory of my family before I take off on this grand adventure. Seven months, my god what a long time it seems now, but I know before I even blink it will be over far too soon.

Alex took me to the airport. The flight in was pretty nice. Got through security on the American side in 10 minutes flat grabbed a seat and had a lovely chat with the gentleman to my left. He was a retired English gentleman from just outside London, worked all his life in London and came out to Arizona to visit his son who was training for his American PPL in Goodyear Arizona. To my left was a German woman headed to Munich to visit her daughter and grandchild. They helped pass the time as we waited to board the BA flight 288 to Heathrow.

The flight itself was fine. I’d describe the feeling as warm, cozy… tight, very tight. We were served two meals, the first – dinner – was served while we flew over New England and the second while we flew over Ireland. Dinner was a salad, beef brisket, muffin, red wine, and a nice slice of pie. Breakfast was a cheese sandwich with strawberrie yogurt and orange juice.

They turned off all the lights in the plane and I managed to sleep over the ocean. I fell asleep flying over the U.S. East Coast and woke up 20 minutes out from the Irish coast. While flying over the Appalachians I looked out and saw only burning clouds. The sight reminded me of Mordor, the cities burning bright beneath black clouds like the furnaces of mount doom covered by its own exhaust. Shadows in the clouds, perhaps some chemical or maybe just heavy rain filled the clouds, I’m not sure but the effect was captivating. Where the city light broke through it was muddied, red-brown with a yellowish taint. The outcome was Beautiful but eerie.

After my delightful nap and wake up call for breakfast we flew for another hour and a half before arriving in Heathrow five minutes early. Took me another half an hour to go through security, it seems I wont go through customs until Milano. The whole shoe thing seems global now, never had to take off and put my shoes back on so many times in such a short period of time.

It seems Public WiFi here at Heathrow does not work. Only the locked routers appear to allow connection. Unfortunate but I refuse to pay one of the businesses here to log onto their systems. I’ll wait until I am in Milan. Done writing this journals its 3:44 – Plane boards at 5:30 Can’t get the gate number until an hour before… foolish, makes me feel like I’m rushing when I’ve plenty of time.

PHX-Heathrow.

The flight to Milan: Interesting, tight, cramped, rough. Headache, little space, no visibility … Damn this is uncomfortable! Check my watch…duh only 5 minutes have passed. Only another hour and a half…Just close my eyes and focus on Milan.

Okay, I’m out, in the airport, through security, got my bags, out in the cold. 4 degrees Celsius… wait..It’s not that cold. Warm almost, low cloud cover, little bit of fog. The air is humid, not too damp but it makes it warmer. I’m not chilled…this is great! Tried Paul twice on the public phones – no go, something won’t let me connect… I’ll try at the Duomo.

Take Bus 73 from Linate to San Bablia. Wander around, find payphones. Two more tries, no luck with Paul, got a different message this time, something about service area, don’t fully understand the Italian. Wander around the Duomo…Beautiful – it’s lit so well its like daylight. Gorgeous. I take a few photos. Time to look for an internet café to e-mail Paul. No luck. Closed. Try two hotels. Customers only. Finally last chance is a hotel off in an alley. Success! Desk host lets me use the computer and calls Paul. Call goes through. Thank goodness. I’m safe, warm, waiting.

Meet Paul outside the Duomo at the statue. Ride the trolley to his apartment where I’m crashing on the couch. Gave Paul some of the oatmeal cookies. Had a nice chat. Good guy, interesting, well traveled. Neat to know more about him.

Write to do list and set my alarm. It’s 12:20am. Waking up at 7 – hot shower, shave and then off to the consulate to check in. Then it’s time to find a cell phone – cheap pay as you go. After that off to apartment hunting and the universities to check their wall postings. Looks good. Sleep.

Strange city…need to spend time with a map.

Christmas Break… stop. Holiday Break… stop. Vacation… stop. That silly time in the middle of the winter that spans the cold dark days. Yes, that seems more appropriate. A time spent with family and friends harkening of days filled with summer sun and autumn beauty. For me this time of darkness leads to rebirth, a transition. That transition is major – life altering, New. Maybe it will even have that New smell… These days, since the end of fall semester spent at Uni, I’ve spent at home in Prescott with my Mother and Father. Recuperating, preparing, and worrying about my new life which is starting across the ocean even as I type. It has preceded me.

January 20th, February 20th, March 20th, April 20th, May 20th, June 20th, July 20th – August 6th.

That’s a long span of words, a longer span of time. A great many months of hard work and fun, learning and playing. Time spent in Italia, and across Europe. I’m surprised – I’m nervous but not, impatient but wishing the event would take longer to arrive. It’s like stage fright, standing in the wings, waiting for my moment in the spot light, throwing myself but not myself on the mercy of the audience … well this time it is me, Me, ME. I, Myself, Me, I am going, I am ready, I am responsible… This is my affirmation.

The flight, 15 hours cramped in a small seat on a flying aluminum can is something I’m worried about. My family has supported and stood resolute behind me, this is a reality… this is my future… my career… my life? I’m packing, I’m cleaning, I’m preparing. Tomorrow morning at 10:30am I’m working out to get my blood flowing again from the R&R I’ve taken here at home. Then it’s time to focus, get everything in order. Take advantage of the warm dry weather. It will be time to do.

Without my family, my brother Alex, my mother Jo, and my father Ed… where would I be? I am a summation of all their parts and more… MORE I am an original interpretation of those parts, those experiences combining with their knowledge, experience and faith as if it were an aiding catalyst in some ancient alchemic formula. I am creating a stronger potion; I am a stronger human being because of all their parts. This concoction is not just all these pieces mixed together, it is new… best of all it is free.

My family has given me the strength and understanding to become myself. I am beautiful. I am competent, I am ready.

Does it end with my family? No, every person, every action, every second has consequence on the result. This summation of an equation is no potion, no inanimate concoction of chemicals. It is me… plus more. There must be more. Can everything I am be a reaction to actions and events? No… the universal question, the driver that creates me, allows my individual understanding and my genesis of thought from each formula, this is God. God is everything, it is everywhere. There is no one being, no Man or anthropomorphic being. God is the force within us that pushes us, and allows our original creativity, our unique interpretation that makes us more than a simple sum.

God is as my father once wrote: “…not something sitting somewhere on a throne…I know that the god force within me is not there to protect me from other men or injustice on a secular level. The message is powerful on another level, the one that really counts.” The message is that I am connected, I am alive, I am free, and I am original; there is no second me, no other version. I am good. I am okay. I am strong and I will always be a part of this world. This is God’s message as I see it. This is my faith, to be understood, contemplated, argued and prothlesized to me alone. It is not for anyone else, nor is it like anyone else’s understanding. As with every being’s faith, it is personal, it is not right for nor does it belong to any other.

So here I stand, waiting. Eight days until I leave my family physically, spiritually and in heart I’ll never be apart from them. Physically I return to them in August. Nine days before I’m on the ground in a foreign country, on my own, with all the tools I need. Two strong hands, a strong body, two willing feet to carry me and a mind set between my ears – a mind prepared and resolute to discover, enjoy, adventure and quest!

I am here, I am David Nathaniel Berger. I am more than the sum of all my parts.

How are you? It’s been so long since I’ve gotten a chance to correspond with you and my apologies for that. I’m sure life has been quite busy on your end as well. I want to extend my thanks once again for the kindness and hospitality you so graciously offered me, your assistance and support along the trip was an amazing boon.

In regards to keeping up I wanted to share with you what’s going on since I’ve come back to the US and gotten back into the flow of school at ASU. The rest of my summer was wonderful, Calm and relaxing I spent my days with Mum and Dad recuperating and preparing for another wonderful year at ASU. As the summer began to come to a close the preparations for school and my move into a new apartment really brought my experiences over the summer and the impending work of another school year to bear.

I moved into my apartment and found that it had not been prepared for us. The baseboards were peeling from the walls, the vent grates had been not been cleaned and the dryer and washer both had problems which had not been addressed. In addition the house had not been thoroughly cleaned, we were not provided with a pool key nor was there a mail box key. To top it off the paint repairs they had carried out were shoddy at best. After two weeks of arguing and fighting with my broker and the resident handy man about getting the apartment to a livable state. I managed to get all my immediate complaints dealt with and the place has begun to look a bit more like a home instead of just some apartment. I settled in and have begun to make it my own. As I am sitting in a computer lab at school right now I’m afraid I can’t attach pictures however I’ll send some your way as soon as I’m able. I think with a little more decoration and a few more paintings here and there it will really come to life. The more work I’ve put into it the nicer it’s become. Right now it’s looking pretty darn good, it’s a wonderful little spot about a 1.2 miles off campus. Since its so close to ASU I can just hop on the bus and ride over so that’s pretty darn neat. At the end of the third week school started up.

My first day of school was spent (as usual) running around figuring out what books I need and where the closest bus stop was to my classrooms. I decided to take 17 credits this semester instead of the planned 20 because the course content is more difficult than I would have first expected. I am taking: Italian 101, SGS 394 Global Markets (econ), SGS 394 Research Methods (social sciences researching/ survey/ demographics) Hon 394 Life and the Universe with a Mr. Paul Davies, PLB 108, Concepts of Plant biology Lab science, and finally Dan 394 Latin Ballroom Swing III. These courses have proven to be quite time intensive, especially Italian and PLB 108. I love my Italian class and hope to soon converse with you both in Italian instead of English. I think that it would be both fun and education for me as well as continue a wonderful friendship. I’m not sure if you’ve left London yet and headed for Umbria but I’d love to hear about how the rest of your summer went and what has been happening in your lives.

I’ve been so engrossed in attempting to stay abreast of my school work that the social world has seemed to slip further and further away. I am still managing at least two nights out however, Fridays and Sundays I go out and dance from around 7:30-1:00am that is an amazing stress reliever. It really allows me to get my head in the right place for the upcoming week and relax enough to get everything done in the day.

I’ve now finished both my required papers for my Hon classes which I was taking while overseas and have officially closed that class, I’m rather sad about it. I miss being there already and wish I was back and had more time to explore the wonders of Europe. All in good time I suppose. If you haven’t heard Alex (my older brother) is over in Edinburgh now, he left last Tuesday and has been exploring Scotland all week. I believe he’s headed to Leeds at the moment I do hope you’ll get a chance to see him.

Looking forward to hearing from you,

David N. Berger

Thanksgiving 2008

After a relaxing drive north from Phoenix I settled in at home for Wednesday evening. Watched a movie with the folks, and fell asleep warm, safe, and excited for the next day. Thursday we headed to Sedona to spend Thanksgiving Day with our good friends the Levin’s. Our driving to Sedona to be with them has been a tradition for many years now. This year was wonderful. We enjoyed a magnificent dinner – perfect succulent turkey, Green Jello, amazing stuffing and cranberry sauce, and most importantly, great family. After dinner we walked down the street to our longtime friends the Huffman’s home.

They are a big family and we affectionately call them the huffmanys. We had our desert there and spent the evening catching up on events for the year. Since we moved away it’s been hard to keep up with our close friends, and now that I’m attending university in Tempe I get to see them even less. We made the most of our time together that evening and then piled into the car and drove home around 10.

The next morning (Friday) we had a huge thanksgiving dinner at our home in Prescott. My Aunt and Uncle came up, and a cheerful young Danish couple I’d met as well as our neighbors the Rosenbergers’. I taught a Dance class at ASU Friday and Saturday evenings for the University and met the Danish couple who were two of my students. They said they had never been to a thanksgiving dinner so I invited them to join our family.
Dinner at the house was amazing. Ham, Turkey, Salads, Pies, Green beans, anything you could imagine for Thanksgiving was on the table. We had good food, good times, and good company. Saturday my brother and I returned to Phoenix.