Jiu jitsu originated in Japan like many martial arts, but was made popular by the Gracies from Brazil, who used their style to win a variety of fighting contests such as the UFC. The art was originally intended as a method for samurai, who were usually mounted on horses, to fight on the ground when …
As you likely know, as of right now the family is located in Puerto Rico. It is a beautiful island, full of things to do and see. I love this place, and I wish we could come here every year. Unfortunately, Puerto Rico has quite a problem with invasive species, similar to the Florida Everglades …
As some of you may know, I recently got scuba certified. Last year I had the chance to do so, but foolishly decided not to. This year I did not make the same mistake, and even before we arrived here in Puerto Rico, I expressed my desire to get certified. Mom got re-certified last year, …
A few weeks ago we were in Athens, and what is THE thing to do there? See the ancient sites! By far the most famous site of the ancient city is the Acropolis, basically the high point of the city. In ancient times when the city was attacked, the population would flee there for safety. …
As I mentioned in my last post, we spent a few weeks in Sicily. Sicily is full of ancient ruins, and also as mentioned in my previous post, according to some it has the best preserved Greek ruins in the world. However, today I want to talk about Ancient Rome. Specifically, the Punic wars. The …
As the third phase of our trip, for the past week the family has been staying in Barcelona, Spain, with friends of ours, the Casarez family. The first full day we were here, we went on a Spanish civil war themed tour of the city. Our guide knew lots about the war, and had many …
Adam Smith, often called the father of capitalism, is probably best known for for his book, The Wealth of Nations. However, The Wealth of Nations was not his first work. His first book, The Theory of Moral Sentiments in many ways laid the ground work for his later, more famous publication. We were recently in …
As many of you know we are in the UK for a few weeks, and are currently in Scotland. To be more specific we are in the city of Glasgow, the second largest city in Scotland, after the capital, Edinburgh. We were in Glasgow for only a couple of days, but we did a bunch …
For the next month the family is in England as the start of a four month Europe “holiday”. We were in Southampton for a few days, before moving on to London. One of the first things, and also one of my favorite things we did in London was visit the Tower of London. We actually …
For the past week the family has been on a transatlantic travel from New York to Southampton in the UK as the first part of our four month European trip. We sailed on the Queen Mary 2 for a week before arriving on the 25th of August. I really enjoyed the voyage, and so far …
