Travels in the Riel World

That’s the opinion of a number of studies, all recently quoted by NY Times columnist Nicholas Kristof in an interesting piece that explores some of the possible reasons for why Costa Ricans are generally pretty content with their lives.

One reason, of course, may be the luck of their geography.

Maybe Costa Rican contentment has something to do with the chance to explore dazzling beaches on both sides of the country, when one isn’t admiring the sloths in the jungle (sloths truly are slothful, I discovered; they are the tortoises of the trees). Costa Rica has done an unusually good job preserving nature, and it’s surely easier to be happy while basking in sunshine and greenery than while shivering up north and suffering “nature deficit disorder.”

Or, there may be something else going on, namely an amazing policy decision from several decades ago.

What sets Costa Rica apart is its remarkable decision in 1949 to dissolve its armed forces and invest instead in education. Increased schooling created a more stable society, less prone to the conflicts that have raged elsewhere in Central America. Education also boosted the economy, enabling the country to become a major exporter of computer chips and improving English-language skills so as to attract American eco-tourists.

I’m not antimilitary. But the evidence is strong that education is often a far better investment than artillery.

And, perhaps there is a bit of a cultural factor, as well.

Latin countries generally do well in happiness surveys. Mexico and Colombia rank higher than the United States in self-reported contentment. Perhaps one reason is a cultural emphasis on family and friends, on social capital over financial capital — but then again, Mexicans sometimes slip into the United States, presumably in pursuit of both happiness and assets.

See Kristof’s entire column for more background on the happiness studies, as well as more of his argument for why Costa Ricans seem to have hit on a pretty decent formula for life.

You’ve likely heard of the book “The Geography of Bliss: One Grump’s Search for the Happiest Places in the World,” by Eric Weiner. And you may have heard about the Himalayan country of Bhutan and its goal of measuring and improving something called Gross National Happiness. What do these things have in common? Well, apart from the fact that Weiner visited and wrote about Bhutan in his book (which is a fun read, by the way), the author just penned an article for World Hum discussing the spread of the Gross National Happiness concept to larger and more developed countries.

People travel. We know that. Stuff travels, too, of course. So do germs. Less obvious is the fact that ideas also travel. They don’t always travel well, and their on-time performance is no better than your average U.S. airline. But, still, travel they do—and often in expected ways.

Take French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s recently proposed “happiness index.” The traditional measure of a nation’s wealth, Gross Domestic Product, is woefully inadequate, Sarkozy declared, and promptly ordered French bureaucrats to take into account factors such as quality of life, the environment and (gasp!) vacation time. What the world needs, Sarkozy said in so many words, is not Gross National Product but Gross National Happiness.

Hmmm, this sounds familiar. As you may know, Bhutan, a geopolitical speck tucked away in the Himalayas, adopted exactly that policy—Gross National Happiness—back in the 1970s…

Call it the trickle-up theory of ideas. Big ideas often start in small nations. For instance,  the wildly successful practice of micro-lending was born not in London or Tokyo but rural Bangladesh. Why? Necessity, yes. But another reason, I think, is that small, off-the-map countries have less to lose. If Bhutan proposes something like Gross National Happiness people might snicker but they’re not likely to think of any less of Bhutan. Partly, this is because they had never thought of Bhutan at all. And partly it’s because we expect global outliers to come up with wacky ideas.

So I’m glad that Bhutanese happiness has traveled to France. Let’s hope the journey doesn’t end there.

In his article, Weiner makes a good case for the relevance of happiness as a measuring stick for policymakers, and he traces its spread from the Himalayas to the West. It may be quite a while before an idea like this catches on in the U.S., but it’s an intriguing concept and, in any case, Weiner is an engaging writer when discussing the world we live in.

I came across an interesting recent article in the NY Times about the growing number of immigrants from Bhutan who have recently settled in New York City. It’s not the most common of countries from which to draw an immigrant population, and indeed the numbers are still relatively small. But what caught my eye was a section of the story that showed how the immigrants have maintained some semblance of their Bhutanese culture even amidst the chaos of New York. Most interesting, I think, is that they continue to live somewhat communally, having transported a sense of community from a mountain village in the Himalayas to an apartment building in the Bronx.

Inside the 60-unit building, where they are a distinct minority, they share meals and information about job leads and educational opportunities, and simply hang out in one another’s apartments to pass the time. The refugees say the flow resembles the comfortable circulation of neighbors and relatives from hut to hut in the Nepalese camps…

The seven-member Gurung family, who arrived in four groups during the winter and spring, invited the Tamangs for a traditional Bhutanese meal at their apartment on Bainbridge Avenue in the Bronx. Though the Gurungs had been in the country less than a year — “we’re just-born,” said Gyan Gurung, 33 — they were relative veterans.

The two families sat on the floor of the tidy apartment to eat. The walls were decorated with a New York subway map and a Buddhist bead necklace.

“The sweetest matter is that all Bhutanese have a universal brotherhood,” said Mr. Siwakoti.

It’s a way of life in many parts of the world: sharing food and conversation around the dinner table. In a place like Greece, these meals might consist of various smaller dishes, called meze, similar to the Spanish tapas that have become popular in some U.S. restaurants. Joanna Kakissis has a great story up on NPR’s Kitchen Window, in which she reminisces about the meze gatherings of her childhood and talks of how she has tried to re-create these occasions in her own homes and with new friends. The story will surely make you want to invite some people over for dinner this week, or at the very least go out for Greek tonight.

My parents moved from their native Greece to the American Dakotas in 1974, but never got used to the big, stick-to-your-ribs Lutheran dinners in the Midwest. Back in the Mediterranean, evening meals were a collection of small, flavorful dishes called meze, spiced with tiny sips of ouzo or the homemade firewater called tsikoudia, courtesy of my mother’s Cretan family. And the food was always shared with friends or relatives who would stay to talk late into the night…

In summer, the evening meze crowd would gather on the tiny balcony in our tiny house in suburban Athens, savoring cheese and spinach phyllo triangles, minty and garlicky yogurt dips, crispy oregano-dusted fried potatoes, the spicy little meatballs called keftedes, grilled octopus, marinated anchovies and, of course, lots of fresh tomatoes, olives and pita bread. My earliest memories include those deeply comforting scents of meze and the openhearted laughter of people bonded to cuisine, culture and each other.

The meze nights got a lot quieter when we moved to the Dakotas, but they didn’t die. Sometimes it was just the four of us — my parents, sister and I sharing keftedesand a giant tomato, feta and mint salad — but sometimes my parents’ friends would join us and add their own flavors…As I grew up and moved around as a journalist, I grounded myself in each new locale by hosting meze nights for new friends.

If you check out the entire story, you’ll also be rewarded with some nice recipes for such dishes as ouzo-spiked pork and beef keftedes, or mint yogurt with carrots and garlic.

There are so many interesting cultures around the world, with their own traditions and ways of life, but never before have I come across an article on running cultures. Yes, a culture in which long distance running is a way of life, as much a part of the people’s heritage as their food and their music. But Turner Wright wrote an interesting feature for Vagabondish on just that topic, focusing on four truly unique cultures from around the world.

… with many nations (even third-world countries) becoming modernized as the world gets smaller, there are few remaining places on Earth where running is still a way of life, essential to survival, not thought of as fitness or a way to relieve stress after a day of TPS reports. Cultures in which running is life, deeply ingrained in the minds and hearts of natives and impossible to imagine what it would be like otherwise. But where can we find such “running cultures”?

He profiles the marathon monks of Mt. Hiei, Japan; the Tarahumara Indians of Copper Canyon, Mexico; the Kenyans of East Africa, and the Kalahari Bushmen of southern Africa. Here is some of what he writes about the marathon monks of Japan:

The marathon monks, who live in the Enryaku Temple atop Mount Hiei, are quite possibly the greatest anomaly in Japanese society, if not the world. Few choose to live their lives according to such strict guidelines, especially when it comes to feats of physical prowess…

Wearing only straw sandals (replaced often), white robes, a staff, and hat, each marathon monk begins walking or running approximately 50 km around the mountain to return in time for meditation and the meal. This is done over 100, 700, or 1000 days, depending on how far along the initiated is in his monastic training…

In reality, meditation is nothing more than training oneself to focus entirely on the present: the breath going in and out of the lungs, the wind caressing your face, the birds chirping from a nearby tree … Running meditation is only natural, by focusing on putting one foot in front of the other and communing with nature one step at a time.

See the entire piece for more about these running cultures.

There are obviously many cultural differences between the United States and China, which stem largely from the fundamental fact that one country has an individualistic view of the world and the other is a more group-oriented society. In the U.S., individual rights and self-realization are highly valued, while in China considerable importance is placed on hierarchy and respect for societal norms. It’s not a surprise that these differences even show up in the educational system, a forum where cultural values are both reflected and molded.

I recently came across two news stories that emphasized the differences between the U.S. and Chinese styles of learning. The first was a New York Times article that discussed the increasing prevalence of young Americans who are finding jobs in China after college. Within the article, there was a quote from a Chinese executive on some of the business strengths that Americans bring to the job, based at least in part on their educational backgrounds.

Willy Tsao, the artistic director of BeijingDance/LDTX, said he had hired Ms. Berman because of her ability to make connections beyond China…Another dynamic in the hiring process, Mr. Tsao says, is that Westerners can often bring skills that are harder to find among the Chinese.

“Sarabeth is always taking initiative and thinking what we can do,” he said, “while I think the more standard Chinese approach is to take orders.” He says the difference is rooted in the educational system. “In Chinese schools students are encouraged to be quiet and less outspoken; it fosters a culture of listening more than initiating.”

The second article was a profile of some Chinese students who are now enrolled at the University of Arizona. The students are part of a cultural exchange program that allowed them to take classes in China from adjunct professors prior to transferring to the United States, thus getting an upfront taste of the educational differences.

The students took classes from UA adjunct professors while completing their senior year at the prestigious high school. The professors taught English, writing, American government and geography, and taught in a highly interactive way that encouraged group work and discussion.

In China, most classes emphasize a learning style of lecture, reading and memorization, said Scott Bird, associate program director with Yangtze International Study Abroad, which organized the group. ”Unlike many of the international students coming here, they have an advantage in that they’ve had a little taste of it already,” he said.

If you’re interested in learning more about Chinese and American cultural differences, check out the book Encountering the Chinese: A Guide for Americans by Hu Wenzhong and Cornelius Grove.

As someone who has survived taxi rides in Cairo, I found this recent Matador Travel article by Nick Rowlands to be hilariously accurate.

Taking a taxi in Cairo is the Egyptian equivalent of Russian Roulette. You’re going to need nerves of steel, plus a little bit of luck, if you want to arrive at your destination with life, limb and wallet all intact…

To survive the journey with only minimal psychological damage, you will need both the patience and the fatalism of a saint.

You’ll spend most of the ride spluttering and wheezing your way through the inevitably gridlocked Cairo traffic, but when a gap does open up, you’ll career through it like a kamikaze rally driver on crank. Lane markings and traffic lights are treated as irrelevant urban art installations, and rules of the road as nothing more than a quaint rumour. Most drivers think indicating direction is a sign of weakness, and only use their brakes as a last resort. They use their horns, however, with passion and commitment: like a cacophony of bats that avoid bumping into things by constantly squeaking.

Your driver will smoke, and he will talk on his mobile phone. He’ll lean out of the car to abuse other drivers, yet he’ll manage to look you in the eye whilst asking the most intrusive personal questions. He’ll also thoroughly examine you using his multiple interior mirrors. Ladies, watch your angles!

To cope with all this, you need to adopt the insha’Allah (“God willing”) approach to life. The insha’Allah world view says that everything that happens on Earth is God’s will. Even if you are hurtling the wrong way down a one way street, while your taxi driver simultaneously texts his wife and grills you about yours, there is nothing you can do about it. Your story has already been written, so just relax.

Check out the rest of Nick’s humorous story about Cairo taxi rides.

You’ve done it. Planned a trip to India. Now, what should you know about the country and its customs before you go? Shreya Sanghani has written a guide for you, which was published by Matador Travel and provides an overview of 10 Indian customs that you should know about before your trip. An excerpt:

Questions and eyes - What might be considered intrusive in many Western cultures is only a matter of course in India. Also, people will generally be very curious about foreign visitors, and this can take the form of unabashed staring.

There’s a lack of privacy among the teeming millions of India, and the concept of personal space as you know it might not exist. Try not to take it too personally if people on the street seem to be staring at you all the time, and if Indian acquaintances and friends ask you questions that you think are none of their business. Most of the time, it’s just friendly curiosity, and if you smile at a staring stranger, many times you will get an amicable smile back.

You’ll be hounded - You might be seen as a rich foreigner thanks to the exchange rate, and many times you’ll be followed around by beggars, beckoned into shops by over-eager store keepers, and hailed by expectant taxi drivers. Make sure your local friends tell you what the standard rates are, because if you’re looking to do some great shopping or have a comfortable public transport experience, you need to be in the know.

Indian festivals- With so many religions and cultures, you will come across fairs, celebrations and merrymaking of all kinds. Whether it is the shimmering lights of Diwali, the colors of Holi, the extravaganza of Durga Puja, Navaratri, Onam, Dusshera, Id Ul Fitr and Christmas, you’ll encounter indigenous customs, amazing Indian cuisine and total festive abandonment.

Read the entire article for the other seven Indian tips and customs.

So you’re planning a trip to Japan and nervous about what it is that you don’t know about the country. You know about the sights, the trains and the hotels, but what about the customs? Turner Wright just penned a piece for Matador Travel about 10 Japanese customs to know about before your trip. An excerpt:

Addressing Someone, Respect- Bowing is nothing less than an art form in Japan, respect pounded into children’s heads from the moment they enter school. For tourists, a simple inclination of the head or an attempt at a bow at the waist will usually suffice…In addition to bowing, addressing someone properly is key. Just as a “Dr. Smith” might feel a little insulted if you were to refer to him as “Smith”, so would a Japanese if you do not attach the suffix “san” to their last name, or “sama” if you are trying to be particularly respectful.

No Tipping - There is no tipping in any situation in Japan – cabs, restaurants, personal care. To tip someone is actually a little insulting; the services you’ve asked for are covered by the price given, so why pay more?

Bathing- Public bathhouses are alive and well in Japan…Unlike in western cultures, the Japanese bath is used after you have washed and rinsed, and feel like soaking in extra-hot water for 10, 20, 30 minutes. It’s an acquired taste to be sure, but can be very relaxing…Take the time to visit a sento if you have the opportunity. These are places without barriers, without regard to skin color, age, or language… well, they are separated by sex with the exception of some mixed-bathing areas.

Check out the entire article for the author’s seven other Japanese customs to know about.

Romance is universal. But the road to romance? Well, that’s a different story. Terry Ward of World Hum took a look at the dating cultures of five other countries in a fun story called Around the World in Five Dates. A sampling:

Japan: The Japanese place great importance on saving face. In the nebulous world of dating, this can make it all the more difficult to know when someone is no longer interested in your affections. Younger Japanese are open to meeting potential love interests anywhere, from a cafe or club to a bookstore. But they often favor group situations—meeting together with a group of friends—as the best setting for a first date.

India: In India, an overwhelming majority of marriages are still arranged by parents. In big cities, Western-style dating occurs, but overall, it’s far from the norm. And when it does occur, the intention for a serious commitment is usually there from the start.

Iran: Since the Revolution in 1979, all rules in Iran are based in Sharia law. Dating is strictly forbidden by the central government—ditto for drinking and dancing. But in Tehran and other big cities, underground parties bring men and women together. The sexes are separated in the Iranian education system until university, so that’s often where couples first meet. Later, the workplace is a typical place for a relationship to start.

Some more examples of culture in the news:

In Washington, D.C., the retirement of the White House florist, Nancy Clarke, sheds light on the fact that even flowers have different meanings across cultures:

In addition to providing flowers for the occupants of the White House, Mrs. Clarke has also ended up becoming something of an expert on international floral protocol.

In an article published in White House History, the journal of the White House Historical Association, Ms. Clarke said she learned to tailor floral arrangements to accommodate foreign customs, tastes and the allergies and personal preferences of the presidents’ guests.

“In Muslim and many Pacific Rim countries, the color white is reserved for funerals,’’ Ms. Clarke wrote in the article last year. “In many of the Central and South American countries, the same is true of the color yellow,’’ she said. “Sometimes it is the type of flower that must be avoided; in some countries and regions, lilies, mums or carnations are used only for funerals.’’

And in Damascus, Syria, the opening of a very modest stock market is a reminder that many Arabs are at heart traders and businesspeople:

For the moment, it looks more like a sleepy college library than a booming bourse, with trading — indirectly controlled by the government — only five hours a week and share price fluctuations limited to 2 percent per day. There are only six stocks on the market, and in the first weeks, only one was traded.

But for many Syrians, the fledgling exchange represents a long-deferred dream of economic liberalization and prosperity after decades of socialism and isolation.

In a sense, it is a return to Syria’s roots: trade has always been at the center of this city, with its famous souks and its mercantile elite. Syria had the first central bank in the Middle East, and a thriving informal stock market until the late 1950s, when it unified with Egypt and adopted an austere socialist creed…

Still, the new stock exchange represents the aspirations of a younger, business-oriented generation for whom economic prosperity may ultimately trump Syria’s longstanding support for militant groups. Many young entrepreneurs are descendants of the old Sunni Muslim mercantile elite of this city, who still tend to dominate in business.

In recent years, this younger generation has helped transform the face of Damascus, with new restaurants, bars, nightclubs and boutique hotels. The economy has grown despite the American sanctions, and private banks, first reintroduced in 2004, are becoming more prevalent.

I’ve previously covered couchsurfing on this blog, both the idea behind it and the actual organization that connects people around the world by offering free places to stay. Now comes an interesting story that compares Western and Asian cultures in terms of their levels of comfort with the idea of hosting strangers in one’s home.

It’s great for soaking up the sights on a shoestring budget, but as some Asians have found, “couchsurfing,” or staying at a stranger’s home, can be a culturally jarring experience, especially if you reciprocate…

Juana Jumat, a Muslim from Singapore, was offered a breakfast unlike any other during a recent holiday to Germany. “My hosts fed me breakfast with their local beer at 8.30 in the morning and I told them I can’t drink, but the host’s mum told me “you are in the Bavarian Alps and you should drink,”" said Jumat of a recent “couchsurfing” experience.

And when the time came for her to play host, Jumat had to persuade her conservative mother of the benefits. “Initially my mum was like, why are you hosting people whom you do not know and simply asking them to come to our house?” said Jumat, who has since hosted 50 couchsurfers, mostly from Germany and Australia…

For some Japanese, the responsibility and hospitality that comes with taking care of guests may act as a deterrent.

“When my friend stayed over at my house, my mum was feeling stressed because she thought she would have to cook her meals and wash her clothes. My mum even sewed a hole on my friend’s trousers when she saw it,” said couchsurfer Ayami Kobayashi.

Despite the Asian reticence, though, the concept continues to gain in acceptance. Couchsurfing now has well over 800,000 members worldwide and is growing quickly in Asia.

By now, everyone has heard of the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at President George Bush during a press conference. Almost all of the press coverage has dutifully reported that throwing a shoe at someone is a grave insult in the Arab world, a comment that has sparked countless other individuals to respond with something along the lines of: “Duh, you patronizing journalists, wouldn’t a shoe-throwing incident be considered an insult in any culture?”

Well, yes. And no. The point is that this is a commonly understood insult in the Arab world. If an American were brazen enough to throw a shoe at a President, or at any public figure, viewers would of course understand it as an insult, but they’d also think the person doing the throwing was a bit off his or her rocker. Most Americans who viewed tape of the incident with President Bush likely reacted with surprise. After all, what kind of crazy person would throw their shoes at a politician? In Iraq, however, the meaning was immediately clear. Even those Arab journalists who thought the act was uncalled for and disrespectful still grasped a deeper meaning in the incident. As Wikipedia explains the insult:

In the Arab world, shoe flinging is a gesture of extreme disrespect. A notable occurrence of this gesture happened in Baghdad, Iraq in 2003. When U.S. forces pulled down a giant statue of Saddam Hussein during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, many Iraqi detractors of Hussein threw their shoes at the fallen statue…The shoe represents the lowest part of the body (the foot) and displaying or throwing a shoe at someone or something in Arab cultures denotes that the person or thing is “beneath them.” Showing the bottom of one’s feet or shoes (for example, putting one’s feet up on a table or desk) in Arab cultures is considered an extreme insult.

Meanwhile, if you somehow missed seeing tape of the infamous shoe-throwing, the video is below. And I have to agree with this comment by David Kurtz: “The shoe-hurling was pretty gripping video, but Bush’s reaction and subsequent riff on what free societies are all about is worth watching, too.”  Hey, perhaps the incident had the unintended consequence of prompting an Arab discussion about political protest in a democracy.

Virgin Media has an online feature about cultural faux pas to avoid in different countries and regions of the world. A sample:

*   The “a-ok” sign has positive meaning in Britain and in the USA. It’s also the internationally-recognised way that scuba divers say to each other “I’m just dandy, thanks for asking.” But in France, the very same hand shape refers to “zero” or “worthlessness”, and in Brazil it refers to a part of the body that the sun doesn’t often shine upon.

*   You’re in a restaurant in China. It’s heavy going. You’re pausing for a rest, so you stand up your chopsticks in a lump of rice and take a breather. Mistake! Vertical chopsticks in a bowl will remind your fellow diners of a funeral ritual, so would be a major faux pas.

*   In Islamic countries and parts of Asia there is a notion that bodily functions should be attended to with the left hand, which is therefore deemed “unclean”, however well you’ve washed it. Therefore it’s considered wrong to shake hands or present gifts with your left hand.

Egypt has a history that stretches back thousands of years. It’s a boon for the tourist industry, which draws millions of annual visitors to the Pyramids, the Valley of the Kings and other such sites, but the country’s long past also has an interesting cultural influence as it seems to induce a sense of fatalism in the people. That’s the topic of a recent essay on Egypt by Michael Slackman in the International Herald Tribune.

Cairo is a city of about 18 million people that is layered with history stretching back to the birth of civilization. The ubiquitous nature of antiquities - stick a shovel in the ground almost anywhere, and it is difficult not to find something - has helped mold a collective consciousness, a national identity, that is uniquely Egyptian…

Egyptians, as a group, are extremely patient, though given the growing pressure of daily life, a bit less than they used to be. Their it-is-what-it-is attitude is often attributed to a strong religious faith and a conviction that all events are God’s will.

Yet growing up and living amid so much history has something to do with that view, too; the abundant antiquities in everyday life are a constant reminder of one’s place in time.

People come and go, pharaohs come and go, even President Hosni Mubarak, who has ruled Egypt for 27 years, will go, too (though talk of that certainty is discouraged).

No need to worry.

Or as Egyptians like to say, “Maalesh,” which, depending on the circumstance, means “Never mind” or “Oh, well.”

“When other people talk about hoping to see something happen soon, they probably mean within the next few months,” said Aly Salem, an Egyptian playwright. “For an Egyptian, it could mean in the next 50 or 60 years. An Egyptian has a particular pace. His pace is different than an American’s. And a long history can do this.”

Some countries easily embrace the concept of adoption. In the United States, for instance, adoption has long been commonplace and even foreign born children find easy acceptance in this multicultural society. In some other nations, though, people have struggled with the idea of adoption. This is especially true in a place like Korea, where family and ancestry are a vital part of one’s identity.

The situation is slowly changing, however, as this NY Times article notes. Last year, for the first time, more South Korean babies were adopted by Korean families than by foreigners.

Daunted by the stigma surrounding adoption here, Cho Joong-bae and Kim In-soon delayed expanding their family for years. When they finally did six years ago, Mr. Cho chose to tell his elderly parents that the child was the result of an affair, rather than admit she was adopted.

“My parents later died believing that I’d had an affair,” said Mr. Cho, 48, a civil engineer who has since adopted a second daughter.

Now, with South Korea becoming more accepting of adoptive families, Mr. Cho and Ms. Kim feel they can be more open, with relatives and nonrelatives alike. Ms. Kim, 49, attributed the change partly to the growth of other nontraditional families, like those headed by single parents or including foreign spouses.

“We feel attitudes have changed,” she said.

Just how much, though, is the critical question as the South Korean government is pushing aggressively to increase adoptions by South Koreans and decrease what officials consider the shameful act of sending babies overseas for adoption.

I just finished reading a book called “Four Seasons in Rome,” by Anthony Doerr. One the surface, it’s the tale of a husband and wife who move to Rome for a year (for a writing fellowship) with their two children. The catch is that the children are twins and are only a few months old when the sojourn in Rome begins, so the story is really about learning to navigate Rome while also learning how to be a parent to two young boys.

The story is fun to read and has the added benefit of wonderful prose and interesting insights into Italian life. A sample of Doerr’s writing about Rome:

Every time I turn around here, I witness a miracle: wisteria pours up walls; slices of sky show through the high arches of a bell tower; water leaks nonstop from the spouts of a half-sunken marble boat in the Piazza di Spagna. A church floor looks soft as flesh; the skin from a ball of mozzarella cheese tastes rich enough to change my life.

And an observation about Italians:

“Italians,” our friend George Stoll says, “will stop anything for pleasure.” And the longer we’re here, the more we feel he’s right. Espresso, silk pajamas, a five-minute kiss; the sleekest, thinnest cell phone; extremely smooth leather. Truffles. Yachts. Four-hour dinners.

I’m always amazed when writers catch my eye with just the poetic power of their prose, and I love to discover random nuggets of cultural insight buried in manuscripts about other topics. On both of these counts, “Four Seasons in Rome” was a good read.

It’s no surprise that the French have a complicated relationship with the United States. One that is certainly reciprocated, as the Americans and the French seem to both love and detest what is most unique about the other’s country. This love-hate dynamic is uniquely examined through the prism of politics in a recent essayby Steven Erlanger in the International Herald Tribune.

An excerpt:

The French have always found American elections amusing, in a horror movie sort of way. They grumpily regard the American president as in some unfortunate sense also their own, but they see the campaign through their own cultural lens.

They value sophistication above almost anything, and so they regard their own hyperactive president, Nicolas Sarkozy, with his messy romantic life and model-singer wife, as “Sarko the American.”

But this year has been difficult for the French. Sarkozy has generally supported American foreign policy and has praised the United States’ openness and entrepreneurial verve. And the sudden emergence of Senator Barack Obama - black, and seen as elegant and engaged with the larger world - has sent many French into a swoon.

But the combination of two recent surprises - Governor Sarah Palin and America’s terrifying financial meltdown - has brought older, nearly instinctual anti-American responses back to the surface.

These two surprises, one after the other, have refreshed clichés retailed under President George W. Bush, confirming the deeply held belief of the French that the United States remains the frontier, led by impenetrably smug and incurious upstarts who have little history, experience or wisdom.

Even worse, from the French perspective, Americans are reckless optimists, incurably blind to the tragedy of life, to the weary convolutions of history and thus to the need for lengthy August vacations and financial regulations.