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...

Kaleena Visited from London

So here I am on a Sunday evening updating my livejournal as Kaleena Chartrand is next to me updating her paper journal. She has come in to visit this weekend from London on her two week spring break. After this, she is off to Amsterdam, Paris, short back track to London, and then Barcelona where she will lay on the beaches as I had only so long ago.

This truly is a loverly time in our lives. We talked about how a movie of our lives would be and it would be no less than spectacular.

I am thankful that she came to Prague because I needed to see this city again in a whole new set of eyes. Don't make life seem normal.

Our first day was a personal day since we did not have our cameras. Prague Castle, landscape admiring St Vitus Church, caricaturizing the American embassy, pretending to be in 1700s Mala Strana, Charles Bridge, statue rubbing for good luck, thinking about the portly pig in Firenze, Old Town Square fair, Astrological Clock gazing and bracing for disappointment, Wenceslas Square shopping, Zara shopping, New Yorker shopping, obnoxiously large sunglasses, conversing about turning 20, Radost dinners, long walks home, strolling the Vltava, embracing Holesovice, fawning little lambs and bunnies, left banking, jousting matches, random parades, island exploring, getting excited for next year, mall shopping, smazeny syr chomping, Jewish history learning, Vysehrad scaling, national cemetary raiding, Devil touching, Charles Square passing, pork and salmon penne dinner at Architectu, and dear goodbyes at 4.30am.

Happy Days

What a loverly day, though it started at 7:55am after no more than four hours of sleep. I do take pride in obeying my alarm clock.

I had to get up extra early today for an internship meeting. We discussed the closing of our time (Kari's and mine) at the Department for EU Affairs of the Government of the Czech Republic and the projects that we have planned. Yada yada. And we learned how screwy the visa process is for Czech citizens to get into the USA, even if just for a visit. Pavlina, our wonderful supervisor, will be going to California to visit friends in LA and San Francisco for three weeks in August but must go through a 3-month process of embassy meetings and questioning. It is rather excessive and discriminatory since the USA treats the rest of the European Union on a different standard. Reciprocity is not being respected.

THEN~
I had a 10:30am midterm for my EU and NATO course. And....I felt very confident that my many hours of studying the previous night until 3am or so had paid off.

And then----
Today is a gloriously sunny day! Glory be it is good. And Kaleena Chartrand is visiting from London this weekend - plenty of photo-ops to celebrate the wonders of Prague before I leave.

But I have a few more papers to write. And off I go.

And may I make a belated mention to Alison Tyler and how wonderful a surprise it was to receive her card. Thanks!

One Month To Go

It's official, I have one month left in Prague. After that, I will be spending ten days in London. And then after that - who knows when I shall return to Europe. When I was younger, I would say goodbye to my bedroom, I would say goodbye to my house and my bed whenever I left for a vacation.

Everything once had such finality and was so absolute. Now, goodbyes mean "until next time."

I saw an older lady with a blue coat and purple round hat doing soduko on the tram today. It was an incredibly adorable sight. I wish I had my camera. I should carry around my camera more often since I have only a month left here. All the travels I have done in my one semester here makes me want to not normalize my time in New York. I don't want New York to seem regular. I want to take trips to cities around the Northeast and try as hard as possible to make every moment during my college career seem like a vacation.

My Travels: Budapest, Dublin/Belfast, Barcelona

I have three travels to write about: Budapest, Dublin/Belfast, Barcelona. Since it has been quite some time and describing everything would be exhaustive, I'm just going to give the tidbits.

Budapest: Weekend Wedding
I attended the wedding of a family friend and it was a beautiful sight. I love weddings, I love being in them even more. The groom, Wilson, was so very calm and collected - he mirrored my impression of my Cousin-in-law Emmanuel, who was my connection to the groom. Wilson and Emmanuel are friends dating back to high school in Canada. They lead such international lives and I wish I had an MBA so I could work on months-long projects for "the firm" in some place like Hungary, or Hong Kong, or Romania. Wilson has spent the past ten years on business projects in Eastern Europe, much of it wooing his new bride, Aggie, and learning to speak fluent Hungarian (a very difficult language).

And I loved the whole affair. The wedding went well and the reception was an absolute blast that went on to 4 in the morning. I met fabulously friendly people from Quebec, Australia, Toronto, Geneva, and the list went on. We all have such attractive accents. And we danced with the glorious view of the Buda hills and winsome Hungarian renditions of American 80s music. (I would have liked to hear more Hungarian music from the band.)

And it was wonderful to see Tania and Emmanuel again. I don't see them too often since they live in Hong Kong. While Emmanuel enviably worked away on his laptop at our suite in the Intercontinental as Mr Accountant (how glamorous?!), Tania and I explored Buda+Pest. We went to the Castle, commented on art at the national gallery, discussed our complicated family, and milled around the Buda hills. What an international rendezvous. More of these should happen. And I wish Wilson and Aggie all the best in their new lives.

Dublin/Belfast: Scholars Trip
So I spent a week on the green island and it, too, was an absolute blast. The Republic of Ireland, otherwise known as the Celtic Tiger, is ridiculously rich. The economy is booming with a full embrace of the promise of the European Union. When we went to a comedy show, the MC pointed out the one audience member from Britain, a Manchester fellow. "Don't worry. We won't hurt you. We don't hate you anymore," assured the MC, "Because, well, we're bloody rich now."

And then it came to us Americans and about the best ridicule that could be said about us was that we were good-looking. Fine by me. Some Irish jokes were lost on us Americans - but the comedy was rich, incisive, and witty and I loved it. Being in a different country and making guffaws about our differences is much better than festering ignorant hate. An international lifestyle once seemed so undeservingly self-indulgent and now I cannot imagine being so unaware of the world.

There were about 30 other scholars who attended the trip, most flew in from New York. I didn't know many of them and it's amazing what a week in Ireland can do. We had fish and chips, explored Temple Bar and St George's Street, went to the Brazen Head (oldest pub in Dublin - Estd 1198), had the bangers n' mash dinner at the Hairy Lemon, walked around the Powerscourt House gardens and imagined the allure of being English oppressors, attended a concert of Irish music, saw a passionate hurling and football match, rushed the field, and of course there was the St Patrick's Parade. St Pat's is not as big of a deal in Ireland and it is on the upswing by government efforts but it was such a delight nonetheless. The parade was very whimsical and interactive. No Macy's balloon floats. It was dancers and bands and people in playful costumes like the Druids and other figures of Irish heritage.

I just have to mention that I went to the Irish Museum of Modern Art and viewed the works of Howard Hodgkin. He’s a very modernist painter who spends years on specific abstract brush strokes that stress the picture plane. He uses very bright colors and every once in a while engages in shapes. It affirms painting as an object since he often will paint over into the frame. And he titles his works with autobiographical references like "Lunch," "Montada en Tabla," "In Bed in Venice," "When in Rome," and "Turkish Delight." This is my favorite piece - of a upper middle class couple from Connecticut (not a good picture.) And I read a poem by James Fenton inspired by Howard Hodgkin called “In Paris with you” which I adored.

And I almost forgot to mention that we went to Belfast for a day. And I had an ₤11 (US$22) lunch. It was pea and bacon soup with a salad that had a piece of fried goat cheese to top it. There was a sweet mound of caramelized red onions on top of that. So guilty and so delicious. Subsequently did some running around town at City Hall and Mango and it was all very urban and newer looking than Dublin. Though, Belfast is a smaller city than Dublin. And Belfast is incredibly depressing. Not the cheeriest place on Earth, I say.

All in all an enchanting time.

Spring Break in Barcelona
I spent 6 days in Barcelona for spring break and I met up with my friend Dorian for the weekend portion of it. He came in from Florence and doesn't have the same spring break as I do. We stayed at a wonderfully located place on Passeig de Grácia. And well, since I have uploaded pictures on facebook with all the necessary comments (that is if you view each picture individually will the comments display), I don't think I will write too much. We saw a lot of buildings from the wonderful architect Antoni Gaudi and I make proper comments in the pictures of his buildings. And sat on the beach. Was mesmerized by views of the Mediterranean and Barcelona from the mountains. And I fell in love with Spain. And remarked on the differences between Eastern and Western Europe. And had wonderful chocolate and delicious meals and sangria. Anyway: here below are three photo albums for your perusal.

BCN

BCN part 2

BCN 3!

Back to Prague

So after a good amount of traveling, I am back here in Prague. Yesterday was a rather stressful return from my vacation in Barcelona. I had an 11 am meeting at my internship about trying to start European Union clubs in high schools in Bohemia and possibly Moravia. And I went to the academic center so I could get some reading done for my upcoming midterms but I ended up lying on the couch by the sunny window and doing leisure reading: the revealing Iraq section in Foreign Affairs journal, the Economist, National Geographic, and the New Presence’s article comparing the EU with the USA as world powers. It was a glorious return back to Prague and everything that academia should be – but I still have to study for those midterms.

And then I fell asleep and when I woke up, the center was closing and I had to buy a phone card and it was raining. And it was a laborious search for a phone card – in the rain. And I got quite flustered to say the least. And then there was a traffic jam when I was on tram. And I had to walk in the rain from the metro station. And on an angry whim, I said I was going to buy myself a bag of chips. (But I bought popcorn.) And it was such delicious fury that I felt at my return to Prague.

Things that I still must do:
Figure out housing in Lafayette with Dorian
Figure out my class schedule for next semester – without much help from my advisor since I am abroad
Study for the midterms
Write a letter to all high schools in Bohemia
Proofread a letter for my internship
And I decided against running for class president

Anyway I just wanted to express what it is like to return to a vacation from a vacation – they really aren’t vacations. Just different places where I still have the same pressures. And I am loving every minute of it.