Our Week with a Ballerina

Often when one thinks "ballerina" one evokes an image of a pretty girl in a tutu with lots of bling spinning on her toes. Yes, that is a ballerina but there is so much more. This week we had the opportunity to observe a week of "dance intensive" with our granddaughter. Camille is in the pre-professional program with the Northwest Florida Ballet Company. Although she is gifted with talent, it took discipline, commitment, focus and family support to advance to the level of an accomplished athlete.

Starting dance classes much earlier, Camille's study of classical ballet began in third grade when she enrolled in the Northwest Florida Ballet Academie. She continued her academics and dance studies at the academie through the eighth grade. After school she has taken classes in jazz, modern, contemporary and character.   Her summers have been filled with dance intensives. This past week, while her mother was away, we had the opportunity to observe firsthand the intensity of dance intensives.

Her alarm went off each morning at 7:00 a.m. to prepare for her 8-9 hour day (except on Monday and Thursday when she got out of bed at 6:00 for her 8:00 appointment at the chiropractor.) She will do this every day for the 4-week NFB Dance Intensive (except Saturday when she doesn't have to be there until 10 a.m. And she gets Sunday's off.) She got herself up without any prodding and left with a smile on her face.

That takes a lot of discipline for a 15-year old.

Knowing her body needs fuel to dance 6-7 hours a day, she pays attention to nutrition as she packs her lunch.

Her dance studies include instruction on nutrition and conditioning; in the fall she will be teaching a class on conditioning. Committed to maintaining a healthy body, she eats a nutritious diet and doesn't skip stretching even on those rare weeks when she isn't dancing.

 

Making Power Balls

So, when she gets home from dance, around 6 or 7 in the evening does she relax with the television or video games? No, she studies English. Why? During the school year Camille attends high school from 7 a.m. To 11: a.m., spending afternoons studying dance at the ballet academie. To have this privilege requires taking an online class each semester. She is finishing freshmen English. To maintain her academic excellence, she must avoid distractions and focus on her studies.

Camille exhibits the discipline of an elite athlete, commitment rarely found in a teenager and focus that exceeds expectation. Still, she would not have been able to reach the pre-professional level without the support of her family. In her early years her parents encouraged and provided the opportunity for her to explore the art of dance. In addition to volunteering with the NFB Company, her mom continues to go the extra miles (literally) to see that she gets to school and dance classes, rehearsals and performances. We were happy we could do the 1 hour plus daily drive for a week so mom could get a much needed break.

NFB Dance Intensive will end on July 1, giving Camille a month of rest and relaxation before starting back to school. Not! She will have a one-week break and then will head to Austin, Texas for a 4-week Dance Intensive with the American Ballet Theater.

Why would a 15-year old give up summers sleeping in, hanging out at the beach with friends and visiting her grandparents? She says it is because "she loves it."

Camille would like to share a recipe for Power Balls, compliments of her Jacksonville Brewer relatives.

She did take a bit of time from her demanding schedule to make a welcome home flag for her mom and for her sister. Alison will be returning home in a couple of weeks from a 3-week trip to Greece where she is doing hands-on marine biology field research off the coast of the Greek island of Samos.

We would like to share a clip of our ballerina in action.

If you are reading this post in your email you will need to go to the website to view the video.

If you find yourselves vacationing in nearby Destin, check the NFB calendar, you may be lucky enough to catch a performance.

With our souls fed with grandparenting, we are now with family in College Station, Texas. 

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Pockets of Hope

For a Gold Star Family, Memorial Day is more than the beginning of summer and a fleeting note of appreciation for those willing to put their lives on line in service to our country. Unfortunately we know the depth of "the ultimate sacrifice." As a Gold Star mom, I want to know,  "Did my son make a difference?" Two recent events give me a measure of assurance my son and his fallen comrades did not die in vain.

Most of you are family and close friends and know the details of my son's death. For those that did not know us four years ago, let me explain. In February 2012 my son was working with the Afgan National Police at the Afghanistan Interior Ministry as the chief plans advisor.  He and a coworker, Major Robert Marchanti, were shot by a Taliban insurgent. The insurgent was able to escape the heavily guarded Interior Ministry complex. Thinking he probably found refuge in Pakistan, we had no anticipation that he would be apprehended.

The last time I saw my son, he was on a 2-week leave about 3 months before his tour in Afghanistan was to end. During that visit I asked him, in his opinion, were we making a difference? He said there were pockets of hope.

A few weeks ago we received word that the murder suspect had been apprehended, not by the U.S. Military, but by the Afghanistan National Police. From what we were told, my son had worked alongside the general of the Afghan National Police and they had become friends. Apparently the general was not going to allow this murder to go unresolved. General Solongie and the Afghan security officers never gave up the search. The fact that the general and the Afghan National Police were determined to seek justice gives me reason to believe my son's efforts were appreciated. It gives me hope that my son and his fallen comrades made a positive impact in the Afghan security forces.

In a note left for his daughters before his first deployment, my son explained his reason for volunteering to go to Afghanistan. One of the things he mentioned was the need for Afghans to educate their children. As his wife, Holly, said in a 2013 interview, “He knew education opens doors and minds and that is the key to people understanding each other.” Darin believed that education is a major key in the stabilization of Afghanistan. The recent release of We are Afghan Women; Voices of Hope by the George W. Bush Institute gave me another reason for hope. Women in Afghanistan are taking huge risks to claim their education and economic rights. The international security forces have made it possible for them to attend school and start businesses. While it remains a struggle, progress is being made. Reading this book I saw pockets of hope for the Afghan women.

This Memorial Day weekend, Captain and I were honored to attend the annual AfPak Hands' Wreath Laying Ceremony in Arlington Cemetery. 

With tears in our eyes, we watched our granddaughter play taps at her father's grave. 

My tears were a mixture of sadness for our granddaughter, grief for the loss of my son, pride for his accomplishments and gratitude for the Afghans that cared enough to seek justice. I have to believe that out of those pockets, progress is being made.

ABN

Mother of Lt Col J. Darin Loftis

To read more about Darin's story, follow the links on the J.DarinLoftis Memorial Scholarship website.

Update, in October, Abdul Saboor was found guilty of murder and sentenced to 20 years in prison. We were told, given the typical life expectancy for men in Afghanistan, at age 32 this is pretty much a life sentence. He lost an appeal in the Afghanistan Appeal Court earlier this month. Apparently he still as the opportunity to appeal to the Supreme Court (it is a somewhat complicated legal system.)  

FAQ about our Italy Adventure

Number 1 question we get is, "Who are those people with whom you are traveling and how did you get tangled up with them?" (Actually the question asked is "Are these friends of yours or are you on a tour," but we know what you are thinking.)

Yes, they are friends and, while not on a tour, we did have tour guides. Many years ago when Captain was an upstart fresh from college, he went to work at Texas Utilities in Dallas where he met Bill.

Through Bill he met Cindi. After Captain left TU, they lost contact for several years. About six years ago they reconnected. Bill and Cindi have a group of the most amazing friends with whom they frequently travel. Three years ago the group had an awesome trip to Italy. Sharing the stories and photos with us we were intrigued and said to let us know if they decide to do it again. They did and here we are. Truly they are a talented and fun loving group. Most of them were members of their church choir and have beautiful voices. At the mention of a topic they will burst into song. We are so happy they allowed us to join their adventure and made us feel part of the group.

"Did you drive in Italy?" Are you kidding? In a small country with narrow streets flooded with autos being driven aggressively, motorcycles and scooters squeezing into the tiniest gap in traffic, tour buses taking up more than half the road and where traffic signals and signs are a mere suggestion, I think not. We were extremely impressed and appreciative of our bus drivers whose skills were very well tuned.

"How did you pack for three weeks?" We packed for one week and tossed in some laundry detergent.

Every couple of days we washed clothes in the sink. Sometimes our hotel actually had a clothes line.

 (If you got bored seeing photos of us wearing the same clothes, just imagine how tired we were looking at each other!)

Here is a tip; choose to take clothes that are wrinkle free, place them in Ziplock bags, while sitting on the bags to squeeze out the air, zip the bags and you will not be packing air. It is kind of like vacuum packing. 

Since you don't speak Italian, how did you communicate and how did you manage to find your way around?" Tourism is one of the major industries in Italy, so most folks can speak some English and most signs are in Italian and English. Actually all one really needs to know is , buon giorno, a polite greeting meaning something like "good morning/day," grazie meaning "thank you,"  ciao, a term similar to "see you, later, etc." and toilette. If one can't remember an Italian term, I think all one needs to do is add a vowel to the end of the word in English. (Just kidding, but sometimes it seemed that way.)

"How did you get around?" The first couple of weeks we traveled in a minibus, the last week by train.

The first two weeks, in Cortona and the Amalfi Coast, were arranged by our friend, Cindi. After the Texans returned home, we stayed another week to see Venice, Florence and Rome. For the last week, we reverted back to our earlier travel days. With Rick Steve's Travel Italy we embraced the challenge of figuring out train schedules, staying in smaller, private lodgings, scheduling tours and searching out authentic Italian food. We did a lot of walking! Captain found the CityMaps2Go app on his iPhone to be a tremendous help.

How did you know what you were seeing? Tour guides! We made advanced reservations with Walks of Italy for the sights in which we were most interested. The groups were small, 6-15 in a group, and the guides were quite knowledgeable. Being with a guide we were able to avoid the long lines for tickets and, in some cases we could enter before the attraction opened to the public.

Did you find masses of other tourists? We were traveling in highly popular areas and there was no lack of fellow travelers. Knowing tourism is one of the major industries of Italy and we were traveling during the most popular season, it was about like we expected. For us, getting out early (a little tough for Captain), taking a break in the afternoon, and going out later in the evening, it seemed to be less crowded. Well, except for Trevi Fountain; it did seem that all the tourists in Rome gather at Trevi Fountain in the evening. From what we could see, it is quite a lovely fountain.

How was the food?  Hmm, that is a tough one. Sometimes it was very good, sometimes it was the same as eating pasta at home (only more salty and they used a lot of canned mushrooms.) The best was in Cortona (probably because our villa came with a chef that previously worked for a celebrity.) We ate a tremendous amount of starches; think pizza and pasta. And of course there was always gelato! (Which Captain agrees, it taste better than Blue Bell ice cream.) ABN enjoyed the strong coffee, especially with warm milk. We liked that fennel was used often in salads. We were pleased that the lemincello ABN makes taste very much like the authentic limoncello of Italy.  

What about security?

From what we had read, violent crime seems to be rare. We felt perfectly safe walking after dark in Florence, Venice and Rome.

On the other hand, we understand pick pocketing and petty theft is rampant. Following Rick Steves' advice we did not carry anything in our pants pockets. Well, for the most part; Captain insisted on carrying his cell phone in the zipper pocket of his cargo pants (which sometimes he neglected to zip.) He carried his cash, credit card and passport in zipped shirt pockets. ABN carried her cash and cell phone in a small, cross body purse which has a wire cable in the strap (to prevent the snip and run theft.) Not taking any chances, ABN kept her passport and credit card in a sleeve pinned inside her pants. (Yes, all of our hotels had safes in the room, but what if we ran into trouble and couldn't get back to our room???) Rick Steves advised that pick pockets typically look for elderly Americans distracted with bags or looking at maps. We can't help the "elderly American" part, but when Captain needed to look at a map, ABN assumed the responsibility for watching his pockets.

To help prevent identity theft and compromised bank accounts, we kept our passports and credit cards in RFID sleeves. Supposedly these sleeves will prevent information being read by electronic devices. Also we paid for everything with cash, except our lodging. On several occasions in the states we have had our credit cards compromised while traveling. While inconvenient, we could get new cards overnighted. Not sure how that works in a foreign country, besides it is a bit less expensive to use cash.

What differences did you notice with the Italian culture? Besides the language?

Food, they eat things we don't think about eating like octopus, wild boar, cured ham that wasn’t cooked and hog cheeks (yep, we ate those, too.)

They tend to eat heavier meals, first course or apertief; second course, pasta; third course, main dish (usually some kind of meat with a side dish;) fourth course, salad; and fifth course, dessert. After lunch they usually take a couple hours for siesta and dinner time is around 9:00 p.m.

Bathrooms, even the smallest, had bidets. To conserve water, toilets had a choice of flush, large or small.

Some of our hotels had linen towels instead of terry and no wash clothes (just lather up the hands,) While not the norm, we did encounter a number of non-gender public toilets--didn't seem to be much of a problem.

To conserve energy, in some of our hotels the electricity was initiated when the room key was engaged in a slot. In other words, when we were not in our room, the electricity was off. Forget charging the iPads while we were out touring.

To Captain's dismay, dessert spoons were often very tiny.

As for the people, we can't really say. Sometimes we felt welcomed and accepted; sometimes we felt as though we, as tourists, were tolerated because we were a needed part of their economy. With all the tourists, and there were thousands, the local folks cannot enjoy their country's treasures, like the islands, the fountains, their cafes, their museums. Although Americans, especially when traveling in groups, are loud, we did notice that most are very polite. Not always the case with Italians and travelers from other countries. It isn't our nature to push and shove. Perhaps it is a passive aggressive response to the dependency of tourism.

What was our favorite thing/place?

Now this is another tough one! There was the lip sync contest at Villa Laura; even though we were awarded the prize for the act that no one ever wanted to see again, there were some very good acts. And then there was the really fun evening at La Trattorria Antica in Sorrento with the Joe Cockerish mandolin player. And the 3 ½ hour Best of Florence Walk with Ishmael, our fantastic guide.. I think we would both agree, the most beautiful area is the villages along the Amalfi Coast and we totally enjoyed the Bar Tour with Alessandro in Venice.

Would you go back to Italy? Well, yes, if we had unlimited funds and we had many more years to travel internationally; we would go back to the Amalfi Coast and explore those wonderful little villages like Ravello. However, there are other places in Europe we have not explored, (Austria, Germany, and Switzerland, to name a few.) Chalk it up to age, but we really miss the comforts of our little cottage and The Wanderer. Living out of a backpack/suitcase is just not as appealing as when we were younger.

So, now we are home. Our souls have been fed with adventure, new friends and with the satisfaction of knowing we are still able to wander around in a foreign country.

Inspired by Tuscany, ABN insisted we stop at a favorite nursery on our way home from the airport.

Arriving home, we were greeted by Peggy Martin.

We were afraid we would miss her show this year and we almost did.

(So happy to have consistently fast internet again! And blogging on the computer is so much easier than on the iPad!)