St. Patrick's Day 2009

This year St. Patrick's Day fell on Tuesday of my Spring Break. Pop, Caleb, Scott, Ethan & I all went downtown to enjoy the parade. Ali came from her office to meet us and spend some of her lunch break with us as well. Pretty much the normal Irish flair; marchers from several Catholic schools, carriages with local television celebrities, a few Irish step-dancers & some bagpipes.

Living in the Shadow of Vesuvius

In continuing with our Italy studies, Caleb chose to watch a video called Living in the Shadow of Vesuvius. Caleb is quite taken with the thrill of volcanoes so he was excited to see this, and now has watched it three times. The movie depicts life past and present for those that live around the base of this active volcanoes. He was primarily interested in the excavation of the skeletal remains at the small seaside town of Herculaneum which was covered at the same time as Pompeii, but in a different way. Most of the victims of Herculaneum's resort town were trying to reach the sea and encaverned in chambers that were by the sea. Many took along their gold and treasures, and these were found alongside of their remains. Caleb was interested in a couple of small children found there, one a toddler, and the other a young slave girl. He continues to be interested in archeology, and finding the past in the ground. He also continues to show interest in architecture and iconology.

Wonderlab, Bloomington, Indiana

We took a trip to Bloomington, Indiana to the Wonderlab. I have to say, this visit made it clear to us, that this particular science experience is the best hands on experience we've had in science so far. I would happily drive all the way to Bloomington and go there, than go to the Children's Museum in Indianapolis. There were so many fun things that I can't name you a favorite, but among them was flying the hot air balloon, the air force tubes, the parachute paratroopers, capturing our shadow on the wall, and probably one of the funnest was climbing the grape vine maze as seen in the pictures here. I highly recommend this lab.

The Indianapolis Museum of Art

Last Tuesday, Caleb & I toured the Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA). I had neither classes nor research obligations so I stayed in Indianapolis, studied a little and spent time with Caleb. We headed out with no agenda barring enough fuel to get there & back. Once we got to the IMA we grabbed a map to see if anything tripped our trigger on what to see. There is an interesting display of African & Asian art so we headed there. Caleb was into the Buddhas and tomb guards. I liked the gorgeous vases & ewers. We then headed to the area with the renaissance art. Even after seeing them many times, I still find the religious icons to be beautiful. While heading from one display to another Caleb noticed the picture in the upper right, San Giorgio Maggiore (1908) by Monet. I asked him why he noticed it - he said because it was a painting of Venice. We also stopped in to see the one to the left, Self-portrait with Porget and Beret (1629) by Rembrandt. It's pretty neat that our little museum houses some of the masters. When we left the museum building, we drove around the grounds a bit. Maybe that’ll be one of our future field trips!

Discovering Italy

Last weekend, we wanted to go to Italy, but hmmmm. just couldn't fit it in. So, we went to Italy in a virtual experience. We borrowed Discovering Italy from the library. I was very surprised how much Caleb enjoyed the movie, and especially how much he was enamored with the architecture and sculpture. He especially loved David, and the bridges of Venice. He was also very fond of the cathedrals and all of the arches and stained glass windows. His favorite painting that was shown in the film was The Birth of Venus. He asked if we could go to the Indianapolis Museum of Art to see it, but I told him I was pretty sure it was not in Indianapolis. I believe his favorite city was Venice. I loved the areas of Naples, Tuscany, and I also loved Venice. We can't wait to make a real trip there.

We start ball room dancing lessons in March, we may have to learn the Sicilian Tarantella.

Expedition to NAMOS and the IUPUI bridge tunnels

We embarked on our journey to catalog the number of sports represented in art at the National Art Museum of Sport (NAMOS). Like species, we categorized pictures into the sports they represented and counted them. We found 27 sports in the museum, represented through art. The most rare was the Bull Dancing bronze sculpture from the island of Crete in Greece. But there were many others and we were surprised by the vast collection. Caleb also enjoyed the modern glass and rail architecture in the spiral staircase that is the centerpiece of the museum.

We then proceeded through the bridge system to the IUPUI campus and took the set of bridges from Michigan Street all the way to New York. We learned about the type of education and what life looks like in college for the students. We also did a impromptu unit on recycling as they had public facilities for recycling there and we had brought along a snack. Caleb did well at figuring out where in the building the items should be placed.

We had opportunities to read location maps at both IUPUI and at NAMOS. There were also ample opportunities for social interaction and a practice of good manners and polite behavior which is important to our ability to socialize with all cultures that we meet in our expeditions.