I'm done with Europe

I don't know if you have been checking this site every once in a while - but I gotta let you know that I think I am done with it.

I am back in the United States. Since my last post about final papers horrors in Prague, I have traveled to London, Detroit, Phoenix, Knoxville, Raleigh, Washington (DC), and Old Town (VA). Things have been crazy but I have my cell phone back.

Soon, I'll be traveling to New Orleans, Chicago, Detroit again, and finally landing back home in New York City for the start of the fall semester of 2006.

I'll keep this website running but I doubt I'll take the time to make the updates. I made this site to mainly record my time in Europe for friends back home and elsewhere - now that my time in Europe has concluded, so has this blog.

Time to Get Together

I spent a lot of time by myself this previous weekend. I skipped out on a long weekend tour of northeastern Bohemia for the nerdiest of reasons: I wanted to finish a paper. This past weekend, of course, was Easter and Passover. Sunday night, while I was slaving away on my cultural history of the city paper, I heard fireworks. And I didn’t realize that the city’s fireworks show would be visible from the other side of the building until it was truly too late and all I saw was a few minutes.

The new pope celebrated his first Easter as the pontiff. My extended family were gathered in Memphis dying eggs and having dim sum. And my dearest of friends were having a jolly time in New York in my absence.

I sat in front of my laptop type, typing away 12 pages about a neighborhood in Dublin. I probably would have enjoyed myself if I had attended the northeastern Bohemia tour, (I lost out on a $20 deposit by deciding to bow out) but I am proud to say that I am done. I turned in all 12 pages before anyone else had written even one page. And I don’t do this to be a super-nerd. Because, well, hey: I have 30 more pages to go in the form of 3 final essays for 3 other classes and then a presentation that I worked on until 5 am last night. Time is a wasting.

I don’t have much to complain about life. I know who my friends are and I think about them and I have good reason to believe that they think about me. I attend a good school and for all its flaws I do love it. I have parents who have tried their best for my advancement and I tend to give them grief for not having done better but I’m working on that. I have an extended family that love and support me. I am in the Czech Republic and I am grateful to have lived in a different country. But I love being an American more than anything else. And my hard work and struggle, for the most part, get their due. I have a scholarship. I have a PFAW fellowship. I have a summer internship and money to go to New Orleans. I got a New York State and federal tax return – though Michigan took out $89. (Oh, Michigan. If you must take out the money, make sure it goes toward funding a stronger International Academy.) And I just received news that I have passed the first step in a long process that may end up in another NYU scholarship. And will be in the Front Lines Leadership program.

I cannot claim to be the cheeriest man on the face of this good earth. And I am certain that I don’t have the best life situation. But I am trying my hardest to make a better future and I hope my struggles amount to something. It’s not the most glamorous way of life but I believe in it. Though, there’s more than a good chance that I read the New York Times and listen to NPR more than I actually open up my course readers. On balance my life is good – not in your eyes and not by someone else’s standards – but by the values that I have come to recognize.

Schejule for the Next Semester

CONCEPTS IN SOCIAL & CULTURAL ANALYSIS Prof Andrew Ross

INTERDISCP PERSPECTIVE ON MET STUDIES Prof Neil Brenner

CITIES IN GLOBAL CONTEXT Prof Ann Rademacher

QUANTITATIVE REASONING: MATH PATTERNS IN NATURE Prof TBA

Life passes with a speed oblivious to my ability and desire to take note.

I am at the NYU academic center working on a lot of work. I just submitted a news report to my internship. Phew. Still on my to-do list before my leave of Praha are four 10-page papers (1 Temple Bar district in Dublin Ireland, 2 Tracking of Sources for Irish EU-enthusiasm, 3 A paper about Czech and Slovak History, 4 A paper about the European Union and NATO). And I have a presentation about EU/NATO/UN contentions during the Kosovo crisis. And I have a 40 page document to review for my internship on EU Affairs with the Czech Government.

The ends of semesters are always like this. There is a Niagara of work. And it is especially compounded this semester by my being abroad and inability to meet with my advisor about my fall schedule - and life. BA/MPA? Honors Met Studies? Or Social & Cultural Analysis?

Yesterday, I got a call from Young People For's Shawn Dixon. It was an interview for the Front Lines Leadership Development Program. I so badly want to be accepted. If I am accepted, my plans in London would be cut short as I would have to fly back to Detroit and then to Phoenix to attend training May 12-14th. Fine by me! After much fretting and troubles that I shall not reveal, I have officially submitted my Catherine B Reynold's Program application. And I dearly thank Zach Wineburg and Taiming Chu for being awesome. I find out about my status in these programs on Monday.

I want to weekend to be over. I want these papers to be over. I want to fast forward throught the summer and be back in New York.

But, I am going on an NYU tour of Northeastern Bohemia this weekend. Friday, Saturday, AND Sunday. Oy vey! Too much. My mind should be occupied, but I have work to do, too.

And I have realized that my life is fabulous. In the past several years, I have made very nebulous goals and for the most part I have achieved them. I know who my friends are. I have summer plans. I know how I want to get involved on campus next year. And I have criss-crossed the western hemisphere not a lot by comparison to many of my colleagues - but in my life. And I think that matters most. I need to do MY best, be MY best. It's hard, I must say.

This is how my 2006 best-year-ever has been/will be:
Memphis->Prague->Cesky Krumlov->Prague->Mariasky Lazny->Prague->Dublin->Belfast->Prague->Barcelona->Prague (Awesome Kaleena visited!)->Northeastern Bohemia tour->Prague->London->Detroit->Phoenix?->Washington, DC->New York...