I just finished a massive deal in Australia! I'll go into details in my next post but now that I have a semblance of a life back, I am back in Hong Kong and trying to catch up on sleep and life generally.
Finishing up the rest of our U.S. trip in Rhode Island (finally!):
Newport was actually really pretty. We went to see the Breakers, a huge mansion (monstrosity?) that was formerly owned by the Vanderbilts but now is a preserved historical site that gets lots of visitors every year. I was astounded by the amount of money they charged for admission - for 7 adults it was nearly $200.
Once we got inside, Lola wanted nothing to do with it. I couldn't blame her - stuffy ugly tapestries, ornate ceilings and woodwork, marble lavishly spread everywhere... it was just so ostentatious. And let's be honest here, it is not a historic site like Italian castles built in the 16th century or an old church from the medieval times. This is just a plain old house built in the late 1800s that was big! And a copy cat of all the Baroque and Italianate styles from hundreds of years prior. Bleh. As Michael said disparagingly, our house in Brooklyn is older than this pile of bricks!
What really upset me, however, and indicated to me a much larger problem with the wealthy, privileged and white environment, was how they described the history of Newport. I was aghast.
There was one sentence in particular, that in the early 1800s Newport established its name as a trading port and earned its riches due to its instrumental role "in the 'Triangle Trade'". I kid you not, that was how it was phrased - just one reference, in quotation marks. First of all, triangle trade is a generic historical term that refers to trading among three parties. If you forgot your 8th grade history (or never learned it!) and didn't recall what the Triangle Trade referred to, you could have read the entire summary and not understood that Newport's success was completely founded on and due to slavery. That's what the triangle trade was, people - a trade of black human beings enslaved and bound on ships from Africa to the Carribbean and the American colonies, in exchange for raw materials like sugar, cotton, and tobacco, which then went to produce final goods manufactured in England. Newport played a key role in that.
There was also a very oblique reference to Naragansett, another town in Rhode Island, that was completely taken over from the Native Americans. The summary just made mention of "the local people" but didn't mention that they were forcibly removed from their homes by the new settlers, or make any reference to the havoc that the new settlers brought in the form of violence and warfare, pestilence and disease, or alcohol. Way to literally and figuratively whitewash your entire role in the sordid affair, Rhode Island historical society!
We did really enjoy the outdoor garden though - seeing that much grass under a big blue sky proved irresistible.
Group pic!
We then split up -Michael's parents and sister and brother in law headed back to Providence, and Michael, Jovie, Lola and I pushed on to Naragansett where we stayed for our last night. The next morning, we got up early to take Lola to the beaches in Naragansett, widely reputed to be among Rhode Island's best.
We were aghast to learn upon pulling into the parking lot that we would be charged, in addition to the $12 parking fee, $10 per adult just for setting foot on the beach! Holy smokes. Is this overcharging thing typical in the U.S., just particular to Rhode Island, or have we just completely and utterly forgotten what it's like to live here? We went down the road to another beach that charged $15 for parking but then was free entry otherwise.
Good thing we did that, also, because Lola took one look at the beach that morning and wailed, deciding she would die (apparently) if any part of her body were to so much as touch sand. This was a huge regression from just yesterday, when we could barely pull her away from the beach.
We had dressed her in her full body fruit swimsuit and matching swim hat for naught. It was only after we changed her back into regular clothes and she was far, far away from sand, that she returned to good spirits. On our long, traffic-ridden drive back to New York, Lola got to "drive" the car during one of our rest stops, which made her very happy. It was just as we neared the fifth hour of our drive that Lola began to lose it - otherwise, she was on pretty model behavior for the whole trip home. I had forgotten how bad traffic in the New York tristate area was - it took over an hour to go 30 miles. The last 17 miles was excruciating as we crawled by, mile by mile.
Finishing up the rest of our U.S. trip in Rhode Island (finally!):
Newport was actually really pretty. We went to see the Breakers, a huge mansion (monstrosity?) that was formerly owned by the Vanderbilts but now is a preserved historical site that gets lots of visitors every year. I was astounded by the amount of money they charged for admission - for 7 adults it was nearly $200.
Once we got inside, Lola wanted nothing to do with it. I couldn't blame her - stuffy ugly tapestries, ornate ceilings and woodwork, marble lavishly spread everywhere... it was just so ostentatious. And let's be honest here, it is not a historic site like Italian castles built in the 16th century or an old church from the medieval times. This is just a plain old house built in the late 1800s that was big! And a copy cat of all the Baroque and Italianate styles from hundreds of years prior. Bleh. As Michael said disparagingly, our house in Brooklyn is older than this pile of bricks!
What really upset me, however, and indicated to me a much larger problem with the wealthy, privileged and white environment, was how they described the history of Newport. I was aghast.
There was one sentence in particular, that in the early 1800s Newport established its name as a trading port and earned its riches due to its instrumental role "in the 'Triangle Trade'". I kid you not, that was how it was phrased - just one reference, in quotation marks. First of all, triangle trade is a generic historical term that refers to trading among three parties. If you forgot your 8th grade history (or never learned it!) and didn't recall what the Triangle Trade referred to, you could have read the entire summary and not understood that Newport's success was completely founded on and due to slavery. That's what the triangle trade was, people - a trade of black human beings enslaved and bound on ships from Africa to the Carribbean and the American colonies, in exchange for raw materials like sugar, cotton, and tobacco, which then went to produce final goods manufactured in England. Newport played a key role in that.
There was also a very oblique reference to Naragansett, another town in Rhode Island, that was completely taken over from the Native Americans. The summary just made mention of "the local people" but didn't mention that they were forcibly removed from their homes by the new settlers, or make any reference to the havoc that the new settlers brought in the form of violence and warfare, pestilence and disease, or alcohol. Way to literally and figuratively whitewash your entire role in the sordid affair, Rhode Island historical society!
After that, we headed for their scenic ocean drive along the water, and got out at a few spots along the way:
We were aghast to learn upon pulling into the parking lot that we would be charged, in addition to the $12 parking fee, $10 per adult just for setting foot on the beach! Holy smokes. Is this overcharging thing typical in the U.S., just particular to Rhode Island, or have we just completely and utterly forgotten what it's like to live here? We went down the road to another beach that charged $15 for parking but then was free entry otherwise.
Good thing we did that, also, because Lola took one look at the beach that morning and wailed, deciding she would die (apparently) if any part of her body were to so much as touch sand. This was a huge regression from just yesterday, when we could barely pull her away from the beach.
Once we got back to New York, we were once again on a frenzied course of getting everything ready - we took a final trip to Costco to stock up on snacks and items that we like / can't get/ want to get for much cheaper in the U.S. (Advil, Starbucks coffee, quinoa, multi-vitamins, mixed nuts, etc.), packed up all of our suitcases, and prepared mentally and physically for a non-stop 16 hour flight with a 20 month old.
When we landed in Hong Kong, it was to sweltering heat and news of crazy protests that have been rocking the city repeatedly for weeks on end. I was disturbed to hear that there was one particularly huge and violent protest that occurred on the Sunday night while we were en route, which was a mere block away from our apartment. Police were in riot gear behind glass and plastic partitions and protestors were in masks, hoods and protective clothing. If we had been home at the time, we would definitely have smelled and felt the sharp bite and tang of tear gas. If we had been trying to get home from the airport at the time, we would have been hard pressed to make it as all the streets were blocked.
The disturbance has not yet stopped as the protestors have split into many different factions with different goals. Bearing the motto "be water," they have escalated their protests into more of a flash mob style of attack, with large groups emerging suddenly and then disappearing as soon as police show up, only to reemerge somewhere else entirely. All areas of Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and the New Territories are on alert. The pattern tends to continue of relatively peaceful mass protests during the day, followed by rampant and undiscriminating violence and use of tear gas at night. Last Monday, there was a mass shutdown as staged protests managed to bring the MTR, buses, tunnel traffic and streets to a standstill and most people stayed away from work. In the meantime, we are paying close attention to news alerts and traffic updates, and eyeing the sharp drop in tourism and the dramatic number of shuttered shops with increasing concern. At some point this will all come to a head and it is worrying to think of how all of this tension and anger will be resolved.
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