A couple of weeks ago my German-Canadian friend Inga, who lives outside of Vancouver, surprised me with a pair of the red mittens which had become a runaway favorite at the Olympics. Today the fabulous pin (above) of a polar bear curling arrived in the mail. I was just about over the moon with this pin, one of the best ever! When I immediately called to say thanks, Inga told the story of getting the pin for me, no easy thing given how people were lined up for hours to buy anything associated with the Olympics. She then casually let drop that she was leaving tonight for Cuba. In the letter that contained the pin, she had mentioned that her sister was celebrating her birthday in Cuba but that she was tied up with things and would not be able to go. On Wednesday, however, things changed---and in half an hour she was leaving for the airport to drop off her bag before going downtown to take some pix of the Olympic torch. Tonight she was then off to Cuba, a country she has visited before, for a week-long family vacation.
I told Inga to think of me if she made it to a baseball game while there. Not likely, she said. The only time she has seen a live baseball game was in Chicago, after emigrating to Canada. Everyone, she said, was eating hot dogs, drinking beer, and cheering. She didn't understand any of it.
