Welcome to the chaos of Episode 106 (which we kept calling episode 107 for some reason). We had the house full with Madeleine’s friends and we also had one of our most faithful listeners the AmHam, join us over skype. The AmHam visit was not planned, Dave just twittered that we were about to record and the AmHam showed up. We did talk Turkey a little, of course we mentioned Mahir (pictured above) the famous I Kiss You guy, who was probably the first big time net meme. Isabelle mentioned seeing Paris Hilton of all people judging a beauty contest in Turkey. AmHam even mentioned a friend of his from Turkey. Finally we talked a little bit of James Whittingham, our buddy. Well next time it is off to Portugal. You are forgiven if you cannot make it through “The Longest Episode Ever That We Never Really Started”.

As most of our listeners know, Isabelle travelled to Algeria in 2005, indeed, she travelled there by herself, to meet a family she met on the internet. Now that is courage, at least I think so (this is obviously Dave typing). This episode is one I have been looking forward to for a long time, while I may kid Isabelle about her love of Algeria, I do love talking about something with an expert, and she is that. We spoke of the differences between Algeria and Canada, and Algeria and Morocco. One of the surprising (to me) differences was the food. Listen to find out more about that. Both cultures do like to eat communally and frown upon separate plates. Suffice it to say, the sour milk in Algeria is not as good as the sour milk in Morocco... Like much of the Arab world, they have a sort of love hate relationship with the West. They equated Canadians with Americans, and Americans with the present administration. That said, I think many of us do the latter.... Algeria suffered a rather nasty civil war in the early to mid 90s and there is an active Al Qaeda group there that recently attacked a police station. They have their economic and social problems, but Isabelle still loves them, and really, who can blame her? A country that welcomes you with open arms, and allows you to stay in private homes is pretty cool. Algeria is unranked by the IIHF... Next, it is off to Turkey! Hope the sound is better..

Good day, and welcome to our regularly scheduled podcst about Greece. This one was like the Italy one really, were to begin, where to stop. Well we began of course with the ancients, and Isabelle began by talking about Greek tragedy. Well those Greeks were certainly tragic, I mean really tragic. People say TV is sensationalist, check out some old plays if you want real sensationalism, then Jon woke up.... Isabelle talked some about Herodotus, a Greek historian, generally regarded as the father of modern history, well the study of it anyway, the Jon woke up. Then we talked about the importance of Greek philosophy, then Jon woke up.... Eventually Dave talked a bit about the conflict between Greece and Turkey over Cyprus, and a bit about Greek food. Then Maddie called on the phone... In the end we had to pull the plug, though we did enjoy this one a lot. I hope the volume levels are a bit better this time. Thanks to Rachel and AmHam for twittering us throughout the recording. Greece is ranked 46th by the International Ice Hockey Federation. Then Jon woke up... Next time it is off to Algeria! Then Jon woke up.

No this one is not about Greece. We just came back from a little camping trip to Agawa Bay in Lake Superior Provincial Park. Oh, we also bought a new Zoom H2 recorder, so well, as the geeks we are, or, well, as the geek Dave is, it was brought along. Around 11 pm one night we broke out the recorder and did a little podcasting. We talked about a few interesting things, well we thought they were interesting, like a recent clip from the Transpondency podcast, that well sort of umm, well, demanded a comment. Lake Superior Park is really amazing, though even at the camping areas there are bears around, and there is real nature. This is not KOA camping baby. The campground itself was super nice, and it seemed like it was only people that wanted to have fun just hanging out in the wild. Our site was surrounded by pine trees We all (Maddie joined in with us on this one) talked about our camping memories, including Isabelle being left at a gas stattion when she was a kid. Oh, and Dave has a cool hat. We’ll be back next time with Greece, unless we go camping again before we record the Greece episode...

Well we are back after an eventful few weeks, but more on that later. Today we were off to Cambodia, the land of the Khmer people (and a few Vietnamese, a few Chinese and a few ‘others’ as they say. One cannot talk about Cambodia without talking about the murderous, genocidal regime of Pol Pot. Dave read a book back in high school called ‘Sideshow’ by New York Times writer William Shawcross. This book talked about the reasons behind the rise of the Khmer Rouge, and gives a theory as to why they came to power. If you want to know the theory you could always buy the book, or listen. ... As usual, Isabelle was interested in more happy stuff. She has a knack for that. To quote her, “while I was playing in the fields of Cap-Rouge and being a free and happy child, horrors were taking place on the other side of the planet. I don't know why anyone needs to believe that there is a devil, a fallen angel, a Lucifer when ordinary people are quite capable of imagining worst fates for others than ever one imaginary Diablo, or Shiva, could do...I decided to celebrate the beauty of Cambodia and to call it a celebration of life because now life has returned.” She talked about Cambodian dancing, which is a descendant of Indian dancing it seems. We saw happy people on youtube making cheesy videos, so really maybe they are getting back to normal and not that different from us. After a little break we talked a bit about Podcasters Across Borders 2008 (PAB2008) a conference that Dave attneded and gave a presentation at. Dave had a pretty good time seeing old friends etc. Finally we talked about Dave’s Dad who died on June 2, 2008. Dave learned a lot from RB, and he was always there for us. We miss him, but, he will never be forgotten. RB would be interested to know that Cambodia is unranked by the International Ice Hockey Federation... Next time, it is off to Greece!

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