European Countries

Serbain, Croatian, and Bosnian Friends proud of Nikola Tesla

Marilyn Monroe was standing here for her 1955 movie entitled "Seven Year Itch."

• Nikola Tesla. Whenever I meet Serbians or Croations, I tell them I have a webpage dedicated to him. They all tell me they like to be on my Tesla page.

  1. Serbian Lady working as a receptionist at Washington's Hey Adams Hotel in front of the White House. She got her degree in tourism and hotel management in Serbia, and came to the United States for practical training. If you are the president of your country, yoo will be invited to stay at the Blair Hall of the White House. If you are the prime minister, you will have to stay in this hotel
  2. Serbian Mother and Daughter I met in KeyWest, Florida.
  3. Serbian lady I met at the Trump International Hotel in Chicago. She studied mathematics at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. I really enjoyed talking with her.
  4. In 2006, I dropped in one of the necktie stores in New York. I asked the shop attendant where she came from. She said "Serbia" and then said she is studying electrical engineering. I then asked whether she knows about Nikola Tesla and told her I have a webpage dedicated to him. We then produced this photo. She asked me to include it in my Tesla page.
  5. This person owns a tie store at the Pennsylvania Railroad Station in New York.

• Albanian Government Officials at CDG Airport in Paris (1999). They were going to the United States to see how the U.S. government works. They say this and that about the United States, but many people still like learn things from American Institutions.

• Croatian ladies on Mariyln Monroe's subway grates (2009). Monro was at this spot when her 1955 movie was shot. The title of this movie is "Seven Year itch."
  1. Croatian Mother and Daughter at New York's Solomon Guggenheim Museum (2007). They came from Dvornik and invited me to visit them when I come to the Balkan area.

  2. Croatian lady I met in Venice. I was walking toward the waterbus station to Murano Island. She was resting in front of a church with her friends. I started talking to her, and she responded with smart anwers. We decided to have a photo together, but the lighting situaton was not ideal, while I had a good photo with her friends.
     Here is another photo with her, but the picture quality is not ideal. Yet, her profile is excellent. Her name is Katarina Putinja. She was kind enough to send me an e-mail, and I like to meet her again.

• Bosnian lady I met in KeyWest, Florida. She said her last name is Maric, and the last name of Einstein' first wife was also Maric.

• Michael Pupin was an immigrant from Serbia who made a great conribution to electrical and electronic engineering in the United States.

Greek Friends

• Greek Lady in charge of one of the Greek sections at the British Museum in London (2004).
  1. Greek student I met in Salzburg (Austria 2013). This photo was taken at the top of a hill. There is another hill seen in this photo. She told me she walked all the way from the top of that hill. I was this strong when I was young.

  2. Greek student I met in Siena (Italy 2014). She is studying in her country. She came to Italy during the vacation to see the world. Her English was so fluent that I thought she came from England.

• When I was in Athens in 2010, I had some do-nothing hours to took photos.
  1. Last Emperor. The last Byzantine Emperor had to move to Athens after the Islamic Turkish army conquered Constantinople (now called Istanbul). He died in Athens. I had a photo with three Greek friends in front of this unfortunate Emperor's statue.
  2. Travel agent in Athens. When I was making a tour around Greek islands, there was a schedule change due to a bad weather. This lady was very competent in handling this problem for me. Her office is near the Greek parliament building.
  3. Two artists Athens (2008). I spotted them at an Athens park. They allowed me to take this photo, but did not want to have a photo with me. They were so artistically dressed, I am posting their photo on this webpage.

  4. Parthenon Temple in the background. The Parthenon Temple occupies a very important place in history, but it was modified and destroyed due to events in history. Of course, there have been attempts to restore the temple to its original form, but it is too costly. Instead, the Greek government decided to build a museum consisting of all the parts collected from the ruined temple. It was illegal to take photos inside the museum, but it is OK to take photos of Athens at roof-top cafeteria of the museum building. There I had a photo with a Greek lady with the Temple in the back ground.
  5. One of the folk dancers at a dinner theater in Athens. Greeks dance like this.
  6. Greek physicist in Minsk (Belarus 2019). She is working in Kazakhstan. I was very happy to see her because I met he in Brazil 2013 while attending a conference held in Iguasu Falls (Brazil 2013). I had a photo with her there.

Swiss Friends

• Two students working during the summer at an Alps restaurant. They posed with me while I was drinking Alps water from the snow from the Apls mountain. It was July 2004. I was attending a conference held at Saas Fe known as a ski resort town. Hotel prices become reasonable during the summer months.

• These two ladies were at the statue of Urlich Zwingli. They were very happy to have a photo with me. I was very happy to see Zwingli's name. I learned about him as a religious reformer when I was in high school.
  1. I met these cheerful young skaters while I was in Zurich in September of 2014. I became very close to them after I told them I am a professor in the United States.
  2. I met these two Swiss ladies at the Zurich airport when I arrived there in September of 2014. They work for the American Express, and they became impressed when I told them I have been an Amex member since 1967, long before they were born. They said they speak four different languages. In addition, one of them was able to speak Japanese. It had a pleasure of speaking Japanese with her.

  3. I met three more Japanese-speaking ladies in Zurich. The lady on my left is from the Japanese city of Kobe working as a hostess for the United Arab Emirates Airlines, and the two ladies on my right were born in Switzerland and their mothers came from Japan.

• Basel is a city located at the northeastern corner of Switzerland. This city consists of three different countries namely France, Germany, and Switzerland. I was always curious about this multi-country city. I spoted this lady in the residential area of the city.
• Also in the same area, I had a photo with this lady. She was going home after her work. She spent many years in the United States and speaks English fluently.

• Two Swiss ladies at the sand beach in Tel Aviv (Israel 2019).

• Swiss Int'l Airlines ladies in New York (November 2009). In the middle. I was invited to stand between them.

• Swiss lady from Geneva. I met her at the the breakfast room of one of the George Washington University Hotel in Washington, DC (2012). When I propose a photo, she said Yes but No, because she did not want embarrass her husband. She then came in when I was having a photo from a medical researcher from Qatar.

Czech and Slovakian Friends

• Slovakian Lady, at the Town Center Square in Krakow, Poland (November 2002).
  1. Slovakian Lady at the Vienna airport (January 2007). She was sitting next to me on a flight from Instanbul to Vienna.
  2. Czech and Slovakia in a London subway train (September 2008).

  3. Moravian students in Oloumoc. Moravia is a province of Czech Republic (2009).
  4. Moravian musicians in a Olomouc (2010).

• From Prague. Czech high school students in London (2010).
  1. Two Czech students at London's Kensington Gardens (2010).
  2. Three Czech students in front of the Jewish Center in Prague (2009).
  3. Czech lady with her Hungarian Friend in Frankfurt (Germany 2012). They are financial engineers.

• Czech research scientist. We were waiting at New York's La Guardia Airport for a flight to Washington.(1999). I was coming home from an European trip and she was going to a conference in Washington. It is always a pleasure to talk with a research scientist.

• Czech Airlines in New York (2008).

Benelux Countries

• Pompeii (Italy), with a Belgian lady at a Greek-influenced Pompeii house (2005). This photo was taken by her daughter.
  1. Belgian Students enjoying their spring vacation in Windsor, not far from London (March 2004).
  2. Belgian High School Students in Pompei (Italy 2005).

  3. Two Belgian police ladies came to my hotel in Brussels (2008). To arrest me? No. They came to deliver my wallet picked up from my pocket two days before in the Brussels subway system. The pocket picker apparently handed in my wallet to the police station after taking the money. Yes, I lost about $200 but was able to recover all the credit and identity cards.
  4. Belgian mother and duaghter in Krakow (2013). This photo was taken in front of the statue of Copernicus at Jagiellonian University.
     

• Business Class. On August 13 (2003), I was in the business class section on a NorthWest flight from Detroit to Amsterdam. Next to me was an American lady of Dutch origin. I felt quite safe because there was someone who took care of me. We decided to have a photo during the dinner time.
  1. Bicycles. There are less than one million people in Amsterdam, but there are more than two million bikes. I am with a Dutch lady in front of the Van Gogh museum. In the far background is Amsterdam's Rijks museum (2003).
     
  2. Another photo.

  3. In Vienna, I waa able to tell she came from Amsterdam, because she was on her bicyle (2008).
  4. Three Dutch students in Delft, at the city plaza (2015).
  5. Three generations of Dutch ladies while waiting on the ticket line at Westminster Abbey in London (2015).

• KLM. KLM is one of the largest airlines in the world, and used to cooperate with the Northwest. It is now cooperating with the Delta. This carrier cooperates also with the AirFrance. This photo was taken at the Copenhagen Airport in June of 2006.
  
  1. A senior KLM flight attendant after a flight from Amsterdam to Budapest (2013).
  2. KLM Flight Attendants in New York, in front of the Radisson Martinique Hotel at Broadway and the 32nd Street. They are ready to go back to Amsterdam (2007).
  3. KLM Captain, in Budapest after a flight from Amsterdam (2013). On my left is a senior hostess of KLM with her light-blue uniform. Here is a photo of the pilot showing her four stripes.
  4. A senior KLM flight attendant after a flight from Amsterdam to Budapest (2013).
  5. KLM officer at the Crown Lounge at the Amsterdam Airport.
  6. Another officer at the same lounge.

• Three ladies from Luxemburg. I met these ladies at the Cafe Deux Magots in Paris (2012). They said they came here for business. What business? I asked them. They said "Shopping." If you think deeply, shopping is a very important business for everybody. During the first two weeks of every year, Paris shops offer deep discounts for most of their items to reduce their inventories accumulated for the year-end holiday season.

Romanian and Moldavian Friends

• After Lunch, on the Corinth Beach (Greece, 1999). She was born and raised in Romania, studied in Germany, and is now a professor in Canada. Her name is Mihaela Ulieru and was with her ten-year-old son named George. George is an exceptionally bright boy and made me wonder how smart I was when I was at his age. We promised to meet again.
  1. Romanian Medical doctor. I met her at a Korean restaurant in London (2012). She said she studied her medical science at Yonsei Medical School in Korea. I asked her whether she saw a statue of a Korean man on the medical school campus. She said yes. She was pleasantly surprised to hear that he was my uncle. Since he was 15 years older than my father, my uncle was like my grandfather.
  2. Romanian lady. after a Malev Hungarian Airlines flight from Milan to Budapest. This photo was produced while waiting for baggages at the baggage bay (July 2002).

  3. This Romanian lady is working for the United Arab Emirates Airlines as a purser. I met her at a breakfast room of a Marriott hotel in the Washington area (2013).
  4. Romanian lady at the breakfast room of the Lotte New York Palace Hotel in New York (2014). The Lotte New York Palace is one of the most prestigious hotels in New York. This hotel hosts the officials from the U.S. Government in Washington when they come to the New York for their business related to the United Nations.
  5. Mother and daughter on the waiting line at the entrance of St. Peter's square for the Christmas Eve mass. We were there on December 24, 2015.

  6. Two Romanian ladies (right) and two French ladies (left) in Heidelberg (Germany 2016). When I mentioned George Enescu, the Romanian ladies became impressed, while the French ladies were lost.

     When I said he died in Paris and was buried there, the French ladies asked me "Pere Lachaise Cemetery?" I said Yes, and I told them I have been there twice. Indeed, I have a photo of myself at Enescu's grave. Those Romanian ladies never heard about this this cemetery in Paris. I was so proud of myself.

  7. Two Romanian ladies inside the Catholic Cathedral in Cordova (Spain 2019). This building was originally built by Moslem Arabs for their mosque.
  8. Two Romanian ladies in Seoul (2017). Romanians fun-loving people. So are Koreans. Romanians had a dictator named Nicolae Ceaucescu. Koreans also had some notable dictators in recent history. These ladies became impressed when I mentioned George Enescu, who a Romanian composer who introduced his country to the world with his music.

     North Korea's Kim Il-Sung used to be Ceaucescu's best friend. Click here for Ceaucescu's visit to Pyongyang in 1978. Some people in South Korea like Park Chung-Hee and some dislike him. In either case, they all agree that Park was a dictator. You will be interested to know Park copied Romania's constitution for his own "Yushin" constitution.

• Moldavian Lady. She was sitting next to me on a flight from Milan to Budapest on July 7 (2002). She asked me whether I know where her country is. Moldavia is between Ukraine and Romania. Moldavians are basically Romanians but they speak Russian. Here is another photo.
  1. A Moldavian lady was watching me while I was taking a picture of myself in Padua in front of the astronomical observatory of the University of Padua (2008). I invited her to have a photo together.

  2. Two students from Moldavia at the Law School of the University of Bologna (2014). This university, set up in 1088, is the first university in Europe. It started with its law school. It was a pleasure to learn the history of this university from these young ladies. They are Moldavians but are Romanians ethnically, and they speak Romanian. Their language is very similar to Italian, and they do not have language problems in they study.

Friends from Bulgaria

• Bulgarian student studying at Princeton University. This photo was taken at one of the campus dining halls (1985).

• Elena Geogieva came from Bulgaria with her family in 2000. Her husband was invited by NASA to work at its research center near the Univ. of Maryland. She worked with me on ray optics and published two papers in the Physical Review.
  1. In my office, while working with me (2001).
  2. A student, when she was in Bulgaria.
  3. Her son took this photo (Washington, DC 2004).
  4. After dinner with her family at a Chinese restaurant (2004).

• Bulgarian lady in Rio de Janeiro. She was very proud of her hometown in Bugaria. She saig the Brazillian president came from the same place (2011). This photo was taken while waiting for the elevator in a Rio Janeiro hotel.
• Folk Dancers in Buenos Aires. Their ancestors came from Bulgaria. They are eager to preserve their Bulgarian tradition (2011).
• Bulgarian lady working for the European Union in Strasbourg, France (2012). This photo was taken while waiting for a trolley bus in Strasbourg.
• Bulgarians in Seoul. They own and manage a Bulgarian restaurant in Seoul, South Korea (2017). They speak Korean fluently.

Armenian Friends

• Armenian Reporters: Two newspaper reporters in Yerevan, the capital city of Armenia. From this city, you can see the Mount Ararat where Noah built his ark sometime ago. You will note that these ladies know how to dress (August 1998).
  1. Armenian real estate dealers in Yerevan (1998). They were intested in whether I intend to buy properties in their country.
  2. Armenian lady with three sons. She is mighty proud of them.
  3. Armenian Farm Lady in Yerevan (1998). I become happy whenever I meet farm people. This lady cannot be exceptional.
  4. Yerevan's opera house ground is glamorous with two Aermian ladies (1998).

• Two Armenian ladies in Istanbul (1999). Armenia and Turkey share the same boundary, and they share a very complicated history. Yet, there are some Christian Armenians in the Moslem world of Turky.
  1. Armenian Student in Montreal (2004).
  2. Armenian Lady at the CDG Airport in Paris (January 2012). She speaks Korean. She spent some years in Seoul, and is working for a Korean company in Yerevan. She became very happy when I told her I visited her city in 1998. She is a very cheerful and intelligent lady. I enjoyed taling with her, and I like to meet her again.
  3. Armenian Lady at the railway station in Rotterdam (the Netherlands 2018)
  4. Three Armenian ladies at a Christian church in Jerusalem.

Different Countries Together

• European Students with a "Euro uber Alles" statue in Brussels (September 2008). They are from Austria, Hungary, and Belgium.
  1. Students in Athens (July 2008). I am sitting two young ladies. One sitting next to me is a student from Denmark and the other lady is her Greek friend. The Dasnish student was very proud to tell me that she is a graduate of Gammelholm School, where Niels Bohr studied many years ago. This photo was taken at the Agora Market place. I went there to produce this page about Socrates.

How did I talk to Einstein?

• copyright@2021 by Y. S. Kim, unless otherwise specified.
  1. Click here for his home page.
  2. His photo-biography.
  3. His Princeton page.
  4. His Einstein page.
  5. His Style page.

  
  I received my PhD degree from Princeton in 1961, seven years after high school graduation in 1954. This means that I did much of the ground work for the degree during my high school years.

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