Another Country Unmasked

“My other car is a boat; my other road is a canal.”

People often complain that London is just too dang busy. These same people claim that it’s an attractive place to visit for a while, but I couldn’t live there. I’m not going to lie and say they’re wrong. In London, there are going to be people around you all the time. But really, when it comes down to it, if you don’t like crowds, a) don’t live in a big city, b) don’t leave your house or apartment, and c) if you DO live in the city and you DO leave home, don’t go out when there are city-wide parties going on. In the past couple of weeks here in London there have not been any interracial parties happening…so I shipped out to Italy in search of one. In the Christian religion, lent is the period between Ash Wednesday and Easter. In Venice, in the days leading up to Ash Wednesday, we found that party. This week’s culture topic of the week is:

CARNIVAL

Of course, the Italians spell it “Carnivale”, but that’s because they speak a language other than English. That language is Italian. And just to clarify my stance on this: if you have never been to a country that didn’t speak your language, go now (and try to learn a couple words.)


Carnival is a ten day festival designed as one last chance to excess and binge on supposed sinful things before the fasting and abstinence that happen during lent. In Italy, the biggest party happens in Venice, where the first carnival was recorded in the late 13th century. Masks are worn as a sign of revolt against past laws that prohibited anything that “masked” the soul, but have been traditionally worn year round in courtship and other festivities. I don’t know a lot about this tradition, but what I do know is that when one shows their masked face, it is a sign that one they are interested in the other.
Carnivale = Party = Fine with me!

Venezia (Venice, in English) is, of course, located in the north-eastern corner of Italy, on the Adriatic Sea and is best known for its streets made entirely out of water (ie. Canals). Venice is an island located approximately 4km off the mainland (though connected by a bridge), and is the former capital of the region of Veneto and home to some of the great renaissance musicians, artists and innovators (Vivaldi, Mozart, Da Vinci), home to many amazing museums and sights, setting for many great stories (Merchant of Venice, Casa Nova), and the origins for much naval technology. Apparently there have been two major cultural slams on Venice, the first being when the Austrians invaded, and the second (just after they finally got the ball rolling again) when Napoleon invaded. Anyone else see an invasion trend going on?

Things to do: walk around, take pictures, take a boat and/or gondola (traditional Venetian boat that is literally a certifiable art and trade that almost always runs in the family and is not easy to achieve at all) ride, eat pizza/pasta/Chinese food/supermarket food/all in one day, and of course drink espresso based drinks and wine. In fact, if you only ingest two things in Italy make sure they are espresso and wine. Not only will they counterbalance each other, they will also be delicious…unless you drink the coffee from a can and/or the wine from a box. Fact: chains like Starbucks are designed after the Italian cafés; in Italy, Starbucks is nowhere to be found. Eerie, almost.

Nightlife is the highlight of the city during Carnival, and no matter where you go there are people around. Each and every little piazza has its own little demonstration and/or dance party, live band, drink stand, DJ, exciting performer, or maybe just drunk people standing around drinking and having fun. Carnival ends in a massive gathering at Piazza San Marco (St Mark’s Square – sounds cooler in Italian, eh?) and fireworks display over the harbour with music and awe. The jazz band was cool too.

Masks are more of a fad for tourists in Venice than a true ongoing tradition and you can get a mask starting at 5 Euros a pop. I got mine at the same place that built the masks for the movie “Eyes Wide Shut”, an art-house style movie starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman (their last together). It’s creepy. Most people’s are not. In fact, most are based on characters, like happy, sad, evil, two-face, the dame, and the hero. The list goes on, and of course they all have real names, but I don’t know them.

Great ski days hinge on three major things: good snow, sunny skies and the people you’re there with. Long weekend getaways to north-eastern Italy are apparently quite similar. Blue skies make for nice pictures, no snow means the world is not going to end, and good people make for more fun. Oh, and masks. And espresso.

As a tribute to the Oscars that took place last night, (which I couldn’t have cared less about) I’d like to first thank the academy. I’d also like to thank RyanAir for supplying Europe with discount airfares and for allowing me to buy a return flight for less than 5 GBP plus taxes. I’d like to thank the internet for providing an endless source of information and for giving me the necessary access to pre-book hostels online. I’d like to thank my work for giving me the time off and paying me a steady wage (though it could be higher) so that I could budget a trip. I’d like to thank the wine and coffee growers who provided me with (most often) nice tasting and (most often) reasonably priced beverages and the people I shared them with. Most of all, though, I’d like to thank the country of Italy for being the 20th country on my list:

Gratie, la Vita è Bella!

A little healthy competition

Even before you start reading, I’ll be the first to admit: this week’s post is going to be a major stretch. I’m headed to the airport in about 1.5 hours to go see the sights and sounds of Italy and catch the tail end of Venice’s renowned Carnival. But (and though you’ll notice I’ll allude to many previous posts and much interesting pop and past culture) I made myself a promise that I would not miss a week, and even being in a different country does sound tempting, it has not become an acceptable excuse…so there will be no relevant pictures and I’ll just cut straight to the chase. This week’s ECTW (English Cultural Topic of the Week) is:

TEA

One thing I am still having trouble grasping is the English fascination with tea.
Asian countries drink green tea. Indian people drink spice chai. In Morocco they serve up a mad mint. In Italy, tea is drank with lemon. En France, ils aiment leurs cafés et ne s’inquietent pas avec les differents types de tées. In North America, they haven’t quite decided what kind of tea is the best, so you actually just get the choice whenever you order it. English people drink black tea (which, talking about world tea preferences, actually originally comes from India), but with milk or cream and sugar.

Now, I realize that I HAVE spoken on food in previous posts, but for English people, tea, though it is a consumer good and is ingested, is not a food. I’ve dubbed it a cultural topic because it is just that. England has a tea culture. Though not an official stat, I would estimate that nearly 40% of people wake up to a hot cup of tea, rather than coffee. In fact, it totally discredits Folgers advertising and how it being in your cup is the best part of waking up.

Now, personally, I drink my coffee black (unless it’s crap coffee and then I’ll put in some milk, but not too much, and I DO love a latte now and again) so I still can’t get over tainting a perfectly reasonably tasting black tea with milk. The main reason to add milk to coffee is to top it up, or dull down the strong, often bitter (yet ever so refreshing) taste of delicious, life-giving coffee. But many have accused me of being somewhat of a caffeine addict. I think they’re wrong. Point is, tea, not matter how black they claim it is or looks, does not have as strong a flavour as coffee. Coffee is still dominated by the all mighty Starbucks and is closely followed by Café Nero and Costa Coffee. These “coffee chains” also sell tea. Sellouts.

Having said that, upon arrival, I never understood why preparing tea would be an afternoon long event (and of course, when I finally figured it out, it was one of those “oh, I’m such a moron” kind of reactions.) The words tea and dinner are used interchangeably. What this means is that “having a Cumberland pie for tea” is nothing like “dunking your doughnut in your coffee”.

As mentioned in an earlier post, England is facing an obesity crisis and the daily free newspapers still have yet to give it a rest. England remains the third fattest nation in Europe, and the government is pushing toward healthier eating. There are currently two major health campaigns going on in England. The first being a health regime based on eating at least 5 servings of fruit or vegetable each day, the second being a push for herbal tea. This herbal (pronounced here with a hard ‘H’) craze is being lead by blueberry and passion-fruit teas, because in addition to being delicious, they also contain helpful cancer-fighting anti-oxidants.

Once upon a time a friend of mine told me that if you leave an anti-oxidant-rich tea bag in your tea for longer than about an hour to an hour and a half, the cancer fighting power can actually be eliminated and after a few hours can actually be counterproductive to the original cause. I thought this was bunk, but turns out it’s true after all. So watch out, coffee: there’s a new kid in town.

Want more facts about tea? In North America everyone takes coffee breaks at work; in England, they take tea breaks. One of the non-winter-countries’ passions is cricket; Cricket games last for days; though they take daily breaks to sleep and eat, part way through each day of play; players get a rest so they can drink tea (and probably talk about how great tea is). The Boston tea party took place in 1773 in Boston harbour and was a sabotage of a British tea delivery to those living in New England, who at the time drank far more tea than they did coffee. Much of England’s supply of tea is grown domestically in Cornwall. An English company, Tetley was the first company to commercially produce tea bags. Lipton Brisk Lemon Iced Tea, in my opinion is delicious. To American people, iced tea is just hot tea made cold. In Canada, we like it with sugar and lemon in a packaged drink can or bottle.

In England, rain or shine and regardless of whether the weather is hot or cold, there’s one thing you can bet your boots on: they’ll have their tea hot, black and with milk, cream and/or sugar.

New Year: Take Deux!

So here’s a cute little story for you: I went bowling last Saturday night in an area in NW London Paddington called Queensway. The bowling alley is in a place called Queen’s Ice Bowl located just around the corner from the Tube Station. I walked there from Covent Garden an including a quick stop at Subway (the restaurant). According to Google Maps, it’s about 3.5 miles; it took just over an hour. After meeting up with my friends, we bowled two games, where I did not bowl to my normal standard, scoring 111 in both games. (To put it into perspective, normally under 130 I consider a complete failure; the weekend before last (no, I’m not that avid a blower) I bowled 149 – slightly more typical.) Moral of this story is: in the early stages of my walk, I passed through an annual, international (though nationally focused) celebration and is the cultural topic of the week:

CHINESE NEW YEAR

In London, they’re calling it Shanghai week. I don’t have any pictures of it, because I’m an idiot and the only day I didn’t take my camera with me, I walked right though the heart of the celebrations. China town (the area north of Soho – the name of an area some may recognize from one of The Who’s greatest songs) is littered with lanterns and you can find tons of Chinese people taking after the Japanese and snapping pictures every where they you look.

I had, once upon a time the great pleasure of being in (now) actual China – Hong Kong – at the time of these celebrations. (I say “now” because I was there while Hong Kong was still then still under the lease to the British, which ended in 1997. I always thought it was kind of cool how the Chinese, unlike non-chinese people, got to have two new years every year – Chinese New Year and, of course, “REAL”/Calendar New Year.

Chinese New Year is based on a combination of the lunar cycle and solar movements. Celebrations take place beginning with the first new moon of the New Year and continue for 15 days, ending the lantern festival, celebrates family and thanksgiving, gives Chinese people the chance to start over fresh, and (though unclear) has celebratory roots dating further back than the Qin Dynasty earlier than 221 BC.

Everyone displays little oranges.
Firecrackers are set off.
Kids get little red packets with money. Sometimes candy.
In real China, traditional red dress is worn in the streets.
Everyone eats a big feast with family, fish, dumplings, etc.

For most of my friends and me, this is also our year: the Year of the Boar, which has only ever come one other year (1995) since we were born (1983). On a twelve year cycle, these signs of Chinese astrology signify something important, but I'm really not sure...(what does this look like, wikipedia?). However, in addition to being a big year for the Chinese kids born in the same year as me, this is a big year for China, as preparations for the 2008 Olympics are now underway as well.

As most of you know, I am not Chinese, but last week I made a dish I have not previously attempted. This dish, though not hard to make, was possibly one of the hardest culinary feats I have ever attempted (which I ironic considering my brother is both an excellent AND a trained chef). I made fried rice, which may have been an unconscious salute to my fellow slant-eyed brothers in their time of celebrations, but just in case that wasn’t really clear:

“Kung Hei Fat Choi!”

Internationally Relating

Globalization, depending on who you are, how you see it, and what you have to gain from it, has mixed connotations. Some see economic/political/technological interdependence as a positive step, whereas there are constantly anti-globalization rallies taking place in an attempt to halt the huge players in the international markets. Globalization, for what my opinion is worth, makes the world a better place. Coca-Cola is the most internationally recognized corporate symbol and ranks in the top three of all symbols; Starbucks is the fastest growing international corporation (expects to open in excess of another 12000 stores worldwide) and McDonalds is leading the pack in fast-food (having served over 99 Billion people). The ability to do international business just makes everything we do just a little easier and with governing bodies like the World Trade Organisation, the EU or NAFTA, parameters are set for all member countires and trade regulations are imposed. America, a global leader in entertainment and pop culture brings us to this week’s (Global) cultural topic of the week:

THE SUPERBOWL

Whether you care about the National Football League (NFL), you’ll undoubtedly have heard of it. In what is known as the world’s biggest sporting event, the two division champions (NFC and AFC) face off in the world’s second most viewed annual sporting event (number one is Europe’s FA Cup – other football.)

The first ever "supersunday" was 1967 when the then two American football league champions played each other. The Dallas Cowboys have the most appearances in the Superbowl with 8, and are in a 3-way tie for victories with 5 (tied with the Steelers and 49ers). This year's/Superbowl XLI match up: the Indianapolis Colts v. the Chicago Bears.

But wait, the Superbowl is played in the USA and never anywhere else. How does that make it an international event? Well, I watched it in England.

In a gathering of hundreds of mostly Americans, I headed down to (ironically) the Canadian bar, the Maple Leaf. If you’ve not heard the score already, you should probably stop reading pretty much right now. The Colts won. Watching the game was tough for me because I have this thing where I just don’t care about either of these teams. I guess I was rooting for the Colts, just because one time I was them and I didn’t get schooled playing Madden on Xbox, but other than that, no allegiances.

The Superbowl is such a big deal that prices start in the millions of dollars, while some huge companies dish out just to get their big break on the big screen. The most expensive ad ever aired during the Superbowl was one for Budweiser a few years ago, and since then, companies frequently premiere their own Superbowl ads during the big game. For many, the ads and the half time show are just as important as the game itself. We had an American satellite feed, so we apparently got the good ones – but none really stuck.

Most English people don’t like the NFL since they think that it’s just a shit-mix between “real football” and rugby. These are the same type of people who don’t like globalization. Americans love American football and with leagues now in Europe, maybe the English should just get with the bloody program – it could be worth millions.