Archive for 2010

Palheiros in Costa Nova, Portugal

Sandra sent this photo of some Portuguese houses – called Palheiros – found in Costa Nova, on the coast of Portgual.

Palheiros were originally constructed by fisherman. If you read Portuguese (or don’t mind Google Translate) you can read more about them here.

If you like taking photos, don’t forget to share them in our Picture Postcards photo group. December’s photo theme is houses.

Read more:
Portugal abroad: a historical tour of Europe
A conversation with Joan – meet a local from Roatan, Honduras
Okinawa – the far South in Japan

Is California Splitting Apart?

Golden Gate Bridge (from Curreyuk; Flickr, Creative Commons)

The San Andreas Fault runs parallel to California’s Pacific coast for 810 miles, a seismic fault line that separates the Pacific and North American tectonic plates. The result is that San Francisco and Los Angeles are actually moving closer to one another at the rate of an inch and a half annually, getting ready for a head on collision in a mere 12 million years. Despite this convergence, the two cities and their respective halves of the state could not be farther apart culturally. 

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What does your name say about you?

I’ve always taken pride in my last name. That distinctive “-ski” ending, asserting a clear and concise Polish root.

I must have first become aware of the Polish-ness of “Makowski” sometime during early grade school. There always seemed to be a few of us in every class. Those rogue Makowski’s, Jablonski’s and Kotarski’s, deviously appearing on the role call next to the Smith’s and the Johnson’s. Those poor teachers would trip over the pronunciation for at least a week.

Then, there was that one time, out on the playground at recess. It must have been around third grade. One of my kiddy classmates made up a chant to help her remember my last name. “MA has a COW that SKIS. Ma-kow-ski!” She thought it was totally cool. So did I.

Over the years, I got used to the pronunciation blunders and spelling errors. I can’t even begin to count the times when I’ve had to dictate my last name to someone. In one breath, the unfortunate receiver’s response is always something like, “How in the hell is that spelled?”, immediately followed by, “That’s Polish, isn’t it?” Polish names do that. Confuse and clarify, both at the same time.

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It’s Christmas in Chicago!

Christmas is celebrated every year on December 25th by Christians around the world to celebrate the birth of Jesus, and the 12 days after in which “Three Wise Men” followed a bright shining star to the site of Jesus’ birth, Bethlehem… but is also celebrated by many non-religious people in many places in the United States. Many families will put up a Christmas tree (a fir tree decorated with lights and ornaments); will decorate their houses with lights, fir boughs, and wreaths.

Christmas comes out of a lot of pre-Christian European traditions, specifically Yule, and the main marker of modern Christmas celebrations in the USA is the exchange of gifts. Adults and children alike will receive gifts, and many adults have lists of hundreds of people that they’ll send Christmas greeting cards to.

Daley Plaza’s Christmas Tree

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Colours of Kenya

Mutua Matheka is “Painting the colours of Kenya, one shot at a time”. He’s a Kenyan architecture graduate currently working as an interior designer. And in his spare time he likes to take photographs.

If you enjoyed these, head over to Mutua’s blog to find many more.

Read more:
More East African blogs on Blogs of the World
A roadside snack in Nairobi
Chitenge – a Zambian fashion essential

Picture Postcards: Shopfront in Naha, Okinawa, Japan

This week’s house photo comes to us from Michael Lynch in Okinawa.

It is a Yachimun (Okinawan word for pottery) shop in Naha, Okinawa. This type of shop is family run and often the family live out the back. In Michael’s words, it’s the sort of place “where ya walk in and shout “Gomenkudasai” [Excuse me, please!] and Granny, or somebody stops watching TV, sleeping, babysitting or whatever they were doing in the back of the house and comes out to wait on you”.

See more Picture Postcards
Houses in Switzerland
Dragonboat Races in Okinawa
Diwali Celebrations in India