http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/MJJM/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from MJJM en-us Thu, 24 Dec 2009 13:41:24 +0000 Thu, 24 Dec 2009 13:41:24 +0000 This year has travelled more than I have and faster.Only two months left for the Raffle Quiz.Here's are new RQs 11.1 What is the national bird of Bhutan11.2 What year were USA advisors first sent to Vietnam11.3 Lo Muthang where http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Bhutan/Trashigang/blog-450519.html Has it been three years already since we've been in NepalI had gone there to visit one the schools that our friend Lama Pema Wangdak had established for refugees in the Tibetan diaspora. Lama Pema had devoted 10 years to creating a Tibetan language based Braille system Buryig. He was also establishing the first mainstream school for visually impaired Tibetan refugees in another one of his sc http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Nepal/Himalayas/blog-420802.html No one can rival the Pomp of the French in most Circumstances but for the 220th anniversary of Bastille Day as well as the 120th anniversary of the Eiffel Tower... you knew it would be something special.So Kate and I rallied our creaking bones from our hotel on the Rue de Corcelles then slowly tumbled downhill past the Arc de Triumph towards the Trocadero where we hung a hard left and ended http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Ile-de-France/Paris/blog-419576.html The names of the people and places are disguised in this post...Some forty years ago I left the East Coast to visit my friends Robert and Angela. I was on my way to France to become a novelist.Robert and Angela were hippies working in the leather trade. We lived together for a while in their two room cabin near City College in San Francisco. We dumpster dived in the Safeway bins for da http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Languedoc-Roussillon/C-vennes-National-Park/blog-419573.html We were on the Pont Neuf. Beneath us the Seine was roiling liquid jade. Above us in the Parisian sky a bevy of winged chubby cherubs were floating disguised as clouds. We knew better.In front if us a neatly dressed attractive woman in her thirties was smiling warmly at Kate and me. We were strangers passing in the day our smiles and eyes all complicit in the shared beguilement of a perfect http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Ile-de-France/Paris/blog-415160.html I've been back a full day. Even though the gardens of Casa Bella are in bloom the roses in full flush the Passionflower vine tangling with the fragrant clematis each of them so heavy and prolific they threaten to pull down the fence on the north border I've the itch to go away again May Go Be With You.In my mind it's back to Brazil.Sao Paulo is a massive megagigaurbanopolis of a city with ti http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Sao-Paulo/S-o-Paulo/blog-395011.html We think you are insulting us said Akmed the blind Moroccan when you say that time is no problem in Morocco.As the Technical Coordinator for the Peace Corps Orientation and Mobility program Stage '93 I was hosting a seminar for the administrators of the blind schools from all over Morocco. I had been given two days notice to coordinate it. My first response a PANEL I figured if I got http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Morocco/Rabat-Sal-Zemmour-Zaer/Rabat/blog-395690.html Kate and I were in Florence staying at the Pensione Bretagna where Kate had lived for a year back in the day when she was a twenty something year old student in Gonzaga's Junior Year Abroad Program.Ah Firenze.The Pensione Bretagna was a few steps away from the Arno River. From our window if we leaned out and looked to the left you might spy the most beautiful small bridge in the world the http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Tuscany/Florence/blog-391281.html Lama Pema Makes Good MomosLama Pema is an extraordinary Tibetan Buddhist monk based in New York constantly traveling an artist inventor musician linguist and teacher. Among his inventions a complex of templates that can be constructed to form a chair one day a bed the next a house if you had enough of them an artistic gravity defying stainless steel whirling prayer device an architectur http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Himachal-Pradesh/Dharamsala/blog-389649.html MARCH ANSWERSCongrats to Tara C Cheryl Dixchief Dr. Tom M. Liz M Matt M Byrnesie Leda Steve K Connie K and others who have correctly answered one or more of the RQs Taffle Questions for Win the USA.Answers areRQ1 Name the writer or the book with which the following quote is associated Only...connect.A E.M. FosterOnly connect That was the whole of her sermon. Only connectthe http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Arizona/Phoenix/blog-387775.html From Notes left on the carving of a hooded hawkhuman fashioned by the Poet Wood Carver Human Trove of Gaelic Lore and World Class Storyteller Michael QuirkeDOWACOOWhere is wisdom to be found Irish File Fillleh Poet Seer answers LOOK WITHIN... here in Sligo SycamoreHero as hawk flies into the heart of darkness seizes CnoFeaso nut of wisdom in Aidlind AshlingDream Vision... Exits wit http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Ireland/County-Donegal/Donegal/blog-386461.html I found three poems at Steve Kuusisto's blog today. I have been STARVING for poetry lately and this helps so muchI love Yeats. Kate has family up in Donegal and we've been there several times. Outside of Sligo I visited Yeats' grave and even though I was formerly a horseman well I had horses and sheep I didn't pass by I stayed there a long time.In Sligo I met an amazing guy Michael Qu http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Ireland/County-Donegal/Donegal/blog-385812.html Why Time Is No Problem in Morocco Part 1In the 1990s I was hired by the Peace Corps to be the Technical Coordinator in the Orientation and MobilityVisually Impaired program. The school was located on a campus in Rabat the capitol in the northwest tip of Africa.In Arabia language not only is used to describe dreams and reality language IS dreams and reality. Experience is a poor relative.T http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Morocco/Rabat-Sal-Zemmour-Zaer/Rabat/blog-385674.html Nostalgia The Flying Y Ralph the Crow and Billy the GoatIn the early 1970s I lived at the Flying Y Ranch with Scott Sandi and Linda. The Flying Y was a horse boarding ranch up the hill in Mill Valley near the Four Corners area of the Panoramic Highway above Muir Beach and Muir Woods on the south slope of Mount TamalpaisThe Flying Y consisted of 11 acres of hillside the occasional eucalyptu http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/blog-385663.html JOHNNY D GETS GOOSEDSo Kate and I live at ldquoCasa Bellardquo in an undiscovered area of northern California. There is a tidal creek at the end of our back yard. Twice a day we live near the water and twice a day near the muck. Sometimes muck sometimes water.There is a protected island across the creek. Clapper Rails Mr. and Mrs. Osprey Snowy Egrets a Great Blue Heron and wee litt http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/blog-385661.html The Lama PemaTibetan Braille story will have to wait a little bit. I'm flying home from Denver and I'll be at CTEVH in San Francisco over the weekend.The RAFFLE Tara C is the first person to name the author novel and quote of Only connect.. Congratulations Tara C. Five others have answered 1 or 2 Qs so far. It's early and you've jumped ahead of the pack.Look for more questions on Monday. ALL http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Colorado/Denver/blog-382414.html As of Monday March 9 at 5 am FOUR people have successfully answered a Qs Question On MM's Blog correctly.They areCheryl 2 correct answersCia 1Dixchief 1Liz 1The current questions can be answered up until Saturday March 31 at midnight.I'm off to DenverMM http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/California/Marin/blog-382412.html