Zipadidoo Thanksgiving

Pretty much everyone in the U.S. returning to work after the weekend this week was asked questions like: "Did you eat too much turkey?" or "Tired of turkey?" That's because last week was Thanksgiving and that means Americans get together with family and friends and eat, you guessed it, turkey.

(Two lucky birds don't get eaten though, the one pardoned by President Bush and the back-up "pardon turkey," I guess in case something were to inadvertently happen to the first one. Coincidentally, they named these turkeys "May" and "Flower" this year, a cute reference to the ship that brought pilgrims to this country.)

White House photo by Chris Greenberg

But I digress. The point is that I didn't have any turkey this Thanksgiving. Instead, I traveled to Nicaragua for a short exploration of a country I had hardly even heard about, except of course the bad stories about contras about a decade ago. There is none of that now. You might encounter the odd corrupt cop (who charged us $20 for allegedly turning without a turn signal), but otherwise the country is very safe and extremely well organized for tourism. (But you'll find that there aren't many tourists there, making it even better if you do go.)

San Juan Del Sur by night

In Nicaragua I met up with my dad who had flown in from Ecuador. We spent a night in San Juan Del Sur, a beach town that's big among surfers, and two nights in Granada, a gorgeous colonial town with great al fresco dining and architecture.

Granada

Our trip was packed with activities, including hikes along the edges of two active volcanoes (Mombacho and Massaya) as well as a cruise among Granada's islets in Lake Nicaragua, which coincidentally are the "babies" of the Mombacho because they were created by an eruption.

Parking on the edge of Volcan Massaya. Back-in, so you can get away quickly.

A highlight was a zipline tour along the tops of the trees in the dense forest on the slopes of Volcan Mombacho. Dad was a bit scared, but he survived and enjoyed himself. You can see (and hear) him coming down the last bit in this video :)

More photos and videos can be seen in my private album as well as on Ben's Latino Benno blog.

A Department Store With an Airport

I have always dreaded having to transfer through London's Heathrow, the world's busiest airport. My biggest complaint is having to take a bus from one terminal to another through something called the "Flight Connections Center." There you typically stand in a long line to go through security (after having gone through it before at the place of origin) and then you have to wait for the bus to take you to your connecting terminal.

Today, the security line was short, but the bus was overloaded with sweaty, coughing, smelly people. I'd much rather walk through the wide hallways of a San Francisco or Amsterdam airport.

After arriving at Terminal 3 I had to walk through small hallways with a crowd of people. The halls didn't have any windows, there were signs everywhere warning for uneven flooring and the floors were uncarpeted, that's because they are working on making this an "airport London can be proud of," according to signs posted everywhere as well.

Then I ended up in a department store, complete with the fragrance and make-up section. It is like Macy's in the U.S. I have been locked up in the department store for several hours now. You're not told a gate number until about an hour prior to departure. If you venture out to any gates seeking the peace and quiet of a waiting area not surrounced by shops, the scent of the latest aftershave or tons of restaurants, you're stopped and told go to back to store area to wait until a gate is posted.

So, while the shops may please a lot of travelers, I once again prefer SFO or AMS where you can choose to be in an area with shops, or in a quieter zone without that circus all around you. A good reason to avoid traveling through Heathrow in the future.

Jerk?

On the way to a fantastic Vietnamese/French restaurant called Bambou in London we passed this place:

Maybe for next time :-)

London

There wasn't a cloud in the sky this morning in London as I walked from Paddington through Hyde Park to meet an old colleague and current freelance writer for breakfast at the Wolseley. On the way, I passed this colorful piece of art in Hyde Park.

Later in the morning, on the way to lunch with a reporter, I had a chance to see London's ferriswheel and Big Ben and the houses of Parliament across the river Thames. Those landmarks are a good reminder that I am actually in London.

Road Trip in Arizona

I was very fortunate last weekend to be able to make a road trip through Arizona and a tiny corner of Utah. After spending Wednesday-Friday going back to school in Phoenix, I took the weekend to take pictures at the Grand Canyon and Monument Valley. I did this using my latest toy, a Canons EOS 40D digital SLR camera. I had been looking to join the DSLR crowd for some time and finally took the leap. These are my first pictures.

Sedona, AZ, a town filled with art boutiques, but also Rollies Cameras, where I bought the 40D.

Sunrise over the Grand Canyon.

Crossing into Utah right before Monument Valley.

Straight from a Western.

NBA

Two truths about Americans and America: Americans like a show and in America (nearly) everything is a giant commercial.

Take professional sports, for example. If you think people go to sports game just for the sports, you're wrong. Also, commercialism is everywhere.

I've been to major league baseball games where the audience is entertained between innings by mascots and all kinds of games played with the audience. These games are typically sponsored by companies.

Last week I went to see an NBA game, a new experience. It was at the U.S. Airways Center in Phoenix where the Phoenix Suns took on the LA Lakers. There were the typical ads everywhere around the arena and shows whenever there was a time out or at the end of each 12 minute quarter.


The shows included barely dressed cheerleaders/dancers, drummers and acrobats jumping off a a trampoline in rapid succession, dunking balls in the basket after doing a flip. Games played with audience members included guessing the "Right Guard" (get it, Right Guard, the deodorant), taking a "lucky shot" on the basket from one of three different distances, with prize money increasing the further out the shooter went (sponsored by a Casino.)


In between all that the Suns lost to the Lakers.

It was a lot of fun and I recommend that if you visit the States, you go see a basketball game. It is much quicker than baseball games, which can take forever. Plus there is much more action going on in the game as well as during those breaks. If you're lucky, you will win a prize.

I also thoroughly enjoyed myself because of the company, the fun people at Henkel, including a 10-year-old smart ass :-)

Back to School

It had been a while since I saw the inside of a class room and actually was a student. More recently I have been the one teaching classes, rather than taking in information. But that's just what I did last week, when a colleague and I attended a three-day course on communications at Thunderbird School of Global Management in Glendale, AZ (near Phoenix.)

I had never heard of Thunderbird before, but it has won many accolades and people who got their degrees there speak very highly of it. (Though who in their right mind would bash their school, it would make their degree and education worth much less.) The campus is smallish and reminds me more of a U.S. high school than a place of higher learning. Still, the auditorium-style class rooms are nice and well-equipped and the care for their corporate clients is good, with fresh coffee, fruit and snacks continuously available.

This was the first time Thunderbird ran the "Leadership Communication" program. The class was small, 10 students, and the professors were very engaged and engaging. I really liked the content of about three-quarters of the program, which focused on stakeholder engagement, framing messages, communicating change and change management. The other 25 percent could be classified as PR 101, which the PR pros in the room already knew.

Still, it is always nice to be able to break away from everyday work and stake a step back and reflect. I enjoyed working through the case studies with the fellow course attendees and reading about the successes and failures of other companies. Also, I got to see my first NBA game thanks to the communications team at Henkel, also in the class. More on that in a later blog.