I have a project to be working on and a Thanksgiving Dinner to be getting ready for, but I’ve been seeing so much love and thanksgiving spreading around on Facebook, it’s hard not to join in and say my two cents.

I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted, and I apologize, but this Independent Study Project has kept me quite busy these last two weeks. More on the details in a little bit, but first, I want to say Happy Thanksgiving to all!

I often times struggle with this Holiday, either trying to list everything that I am thankful for, or the thing I am the most thankful for. Often times it is good friends or great memories. This time, for the first time in my life, I am celebrating this holiday without family or close family friends. In a way, I am thankful. Not for the fact that I’m thousands of miles away, but for the amazing opportunity that I have had for the last 13 weeks.

This experience has been so much more than I thought it would be in more ways than I can count. I won’t go too much into details for risk of running over into my final reflection too much on the semester, but to say the least that I am thankful to be in Europe, to have met such amazing people here, to almost being done with the experience (and returning home for the first time since mid-August). I am thankful for the impending conclusion of this project and the miraculous phenomenon of my fiction and my work all starting to come into a solidly respectable product. Above all else, I am thankful for being given the opportunity to make such memories, some positive and some not so much, all of which roll together in a way that reminds me I am truly alive. I am thankful to be able to celebrate Thanksgiving Dinner in a couple hours, with some very wonderful people, and to enjoy this evening of laughing together, catching up with each other on the last several weeks, and to have the opportunity to be thankful for all of it.

But life goes on. Other matters are attended to, and I want to catch you up on the first half of my ISP project. My first week was a bit nervous and free-floaty, because suddenly I didn’t have to report to class anymore. I had too much free time, and I wasn’t quite sure what my first step was. Mostly it was starting work on my first story, and setting up the logistics for my visit to the Sudetenland (Cheb). I also set up times for my interviews for the project, during the third week. Most of my work was logistical and spent behind a computer planning details, costs, etc. It was not the most exciting week, though it was much more relaxing and leisurely.

It wasn’t all pleasant though. I was trying to write a fiction story taking place in the United States, which was about our generation’s self-criticism of our nation, but not acting on it. The result was an absolute disaster. It was way too long, it was incoherent, there was no climax to it, and much of it was either told or just outright unbelievable. My advisor and I both had the same opinion before we even started talking about it: that there was nothing really that could get much worse than this. She however, reminded me the value and the necessity of these experiences.

The second week was way more exciting. I left Prague. Twice. My first trip was to the Cheb region, where I arrived by bus early Monday morning, walked around, stayed the night, and left by train the following afternoon. The goal was really just to walk around and see some of the history. As I wrote in my field journal, the most striking moment was when I randomly found a clearing in the trees along the side of the road and there were clearly old ruins there that were so dilapidated that you had no idea whether it had been a village or just someone’s house that had been there before. About 100 feet away from it was a littering dump, filled with trash and wrappers and even some larger furniture. It made me wonder whether the people dumping trash there even knew that an old abandoned German settlement was so close.

Other than that, I mostly saw memorials, just randomly placed along the side of the road: sometimes in a ditch, sometimes in a field, and sometimes in front of others’ property. They all had two things in common: they all had crosses, and none of them had names. They were just silent remembrances for someone or something.

Then I came back for a day, recuperated, and last minute exchanged with Petr Bergmann, a historian in the Broumov area, and was offered to stay the night. I went up Thursday evening, spoke with him, read some of his books (all of them in German), and then walked around Friday to see some of the graveyards in the area. The biggest one I saw was in Broumov, but even I was surprised at just how huge it was. It would take quite a few minutes to walk up and down the whole yard. What was not surprising was the quality of the German graves against those of the Czechs. The graves closer to the church were older and German, and were in quite terrible condition, some of them having lost their headstones, some that were faded beyond comprehension and some that were even cracked and eroded to the point you could see inside the grave itself, a slightly disturbing realization.

Despite some of these real moments, having had this experience created some challenges in the writing of fiction, namely that I ended up telling a lot of these kinds of moments, because I already felt the emotions and knew them, and rather than developing them in the fiction, I was trying to tell them. More details on that process will come in the project itself when I post it, but that was one challenge with it.

And that is where I have ended up with the first half of the project. The second half includes, interviews, revision and compilation of all my research. It’s actually all falling into place: it’s quite exciting.

Until Next Time,

Joe

It’s hard to believe that this point in the semester could ever arrive: The last Czech’n of the semester. There were 8 in total. In retrospect, that seems like such a small number. And yet so much has been covered, so much has been learned, and most important of all, so much has been lived. It seems remarkable to me that this is the same experience where on our first full day in Europe, we were given the directions for a drop off and told to go find our way and report back. It seems so long ago we were going over sexual harassment policies and preferences for homestay experiences, before being assigned our families. I can still vividly remember the afternoon when Lenka, our homestay coordinator, took 40 minutes to go over policy stuff, keeping our families until the very end, to keep our attention. And now here I am, writing about the finals week for Study Abroad in Prague. Finally! (Heh, heh, cough, heh!)

This week was a whirlwind of activities, starting off with the lecturer’s panel discussion Monday morning. Now THIS was an exciting event, getting to see where and how all our lecturers agreed and disagreed with each other. Now we got to see how the history of literature confronted with our history lecturer, and where our theater history lecturer disagreed with the political overview of contemporary Czech society. It was very interesting to see how the literature professor and theater history professor stressed the absence of theater attendance in the years immediately after the Velvet Revolution than the political and history professors were, though maybe that’s not quite fair to say, but rather were certainly much more vocal about it, as one example.

A couple hours after that, I had my first final for the week. Creative Writing. Whereas I usually create a portfolio, write up a discussion of what I’ve learned that semester, and throw in my observation of visiting writers events as a final portfolio, this time, I had to present my work. The idea is that none of us has seen the others’ creative classes (since they all met at the same time every week) and now we got to show off. I read my last work, which had been revised a number of times. I ended up not being particularly satisfied with it, and Petra (my professor) said that was because you could see the back stage of the story, in other words the effort I had put in to change, revise and improve it, when in the best stories, that effort is invisible and it appears to just be a story. I completely agree, and perhaps is one valuable take-away as a writer for the semester.

Immediately after our final presentation, the visual artists engaged us with their exhibitions. What struck me was how half of the artists (2 of the 4) created an exhibit that required you to engage with it in order to get a full experience of the art. I guess it was their way of rebelling against the conceptual preferences for their professors of the semester. One exhibit was this coded language of symbols, which you could decipher into messages. Another was images printed on transparencies that you could stack in front of each other and make some really bizarre images. The third was a series of more conceptual intricately cut papers placed in front of a photo of a design that had inspired the paper artwork. The final presentation dealt with computerized imagery and constructing and deconstructing artwork similar to the artistic ceiling of a chapel.

The next day we had our next round of finals which was our social change group. They had a panel discussion where their professor (and us as a group) asked them questions and they ran a discussion regarding one organization they had each chosen from their semester study to learn more about. We learned about efforts to get people cycling more in Prague to the gender studies and gender equal rights movement in Prague.

On Wednesday, we had the last of our creative finals, which was for the actors. This was amazing. It opened with an improvisational act (completely silent), which I understand was something they had opened with/worked on every week of the semester. Then after that, we got to see a couple performances of how each actor had contributed an observation of something going on in Prague, and then they cut them and “re-glued” them in a jumbled order to almost make a new story of different moments around Prague. It was really quite something to watch.

That was the last of the fun and entertaining finals (for those not involved, because now we were all involved in the last two finals). First we had the Czech Language final on Thursday. This was fine, except I could kind of sense how easy it would have been to make careless mistakes on the written part of the exam, and not realize it. On the flip side, the speaking exam was set up like an interrogation room, but I felt quite solid on it, and the teachers seemed really pleased with the partner dialogues we had spoken. But now I have been formally assessed on my ability to use phrases like:

• Já jsem Joe. Odkud jsi Joe? Jsem z Chicaga. Co dělaš? Jsem student. Ahoj! Čau!
• Prosím vás, nevíte kde je Hotel? Ano, musíte jít rovně, a pak druhou ulice doleva, a pak první ulice doprava, a pak Hotel je pravo-nahoře.
• Dám si gulaš a knedliky. Mám rad Zmrzlínu. Dám si Palačinky s marmeládou. To je všechno. Zaplátím.
• Můj bratr se jemenuje Richard. Je mu 24 let, je hudebník. Naše prvni Auto není nové nebo elegantní. Já jsem zdravý, moderní a mladý.
• Nechceš jít na Tenis? Ano, a kdy? Dneska v pet odpoledne? Dneska nemůžu, musím studovat. Můžu Zítra ráno. Zítra ráno nemůžu, musím skypovat. Třeba zítra večer? Kdy se sejdeme? V 7 večer? Hodi se ti to? Ano, hodi. Dobrý! Teším se! Ahoj! Čau!
• Co dělal jsi o vikendu? Ja spál moc, a pak uklízel and studoval. A ty? Ja hrál Fotbol, vařil oběd, a pak studoval.

And there you go. I’m sure you perfectly understood every single word of this incredibly small language in the scope of the world. But to be fair, it shares many similarities to polish and Slovak, and I’m sure even some with Russian.

Our final Final (finally) was the Thematic Seminar final. This was a more typical sit down, in-class essay final, with multiple prompts, some being short answer or fill in the blank, and others being essays. It was not difficult except for one of the singled out terms was one I had forgotten to study, so I simply answered it truthfully, honestly and, well, creatively! And then we were done. Just like that. We were done with classes for the Fall of 2014. Unbelievable. Now it was time to turn towards the ISP.

Until Next Time,

Joe

Again, sorry for the delay, I’ve been trying to get my ISP started as smoothly as possible, which has been slightly difficult (as I’ll talk about in ISP Czech’n No. 1). As it is, I’m going to make this a more abbreviated summary, especially as things started getting a little repetitive in wrapping up classes.

First of all, day one after our excursion and my trip to Germany, I got slammed with a new commute. Naturally it happens on the one day that I’m trying to prove to my AD that I can travel independently AND show up to class on time. Now, my commute to school forced me to add the metro (subway) to my commute on top of my already dual Bus-Tram commute taking about 50 minutes daily. It took me about 90 minutes to do this commute.

We hit off the week with theater and literature. In theater history we discussed how the Velvet Revolution was led by Havel through the theater, and the role that some of these theaters played with ridiculous scripts (though that link was never completely clear to me). In literature, we discussed Jachym Topol’s work, The Devil’s Workshop, the most horrifically depressing book I had ever read. We also made an excursion to the library of prohibited literature. We got to look and (and even handle) samizdat, which is the Czech word for the literature that was reproduced and shared on a small scale during the Soviet communistic regime.

In history, we covered the topic of the fall of the Soviet Union, the Velvet Revolution and contemporary times. That’s about it, other than a list of dates regarding this transition. The more notable issue of that session, was that it was our last. Petr Sokol had been our first lecturer, coming up for his first lecture in Orientation Week. He had also been our favorite. And now, his last class had come to a close.

Other parts this week: We saw a movie, “Private Century”, which was created out of film segments of this family found in historical records. We had a discussion of the recent Czech political elections, of which the most interesting that that happened was the continuing trend of Czechs being more interested in a broad and vague promise of “We’ll take care of it” rather than a specific campaign, and lastly, had another discussion geared very pointedly towards ISPs in two weeks. We submitted our proposal drafts this day (Friday).

Then we hit the final week of classes. We started off with literature, which we discussed the role of writers and artists in the era immediately after the Velvet Revolution, which was pretty much eradicated (theaters turned up empty or with low attendance most of the time for a couple years). That afternoon, we discussed error and bias in the field, again, specifically in regards to our ISP now a little under two weeks away.

Middle of the week, we had our final creative writing class, which finally Petra allowed us to go around and compliment each other on our growth over the semester. It was the feeling of what I like to call warm fuzzies. It was also a little bit sad… we had gotten into our routine (our weekly omelets, my weekly homemade raspberry lemonade) and now it was over. No more free lunches paid for by SIT… (our tuition money really, I suppose).

Then we had our last film viewing on Thursday, Kawasaki’s Rose, which was a very good movie. Highly recommended, so I won’t spoil the movie. Finally that Friday, we had our last Thematic Seminar session, which was a discussion on the current situation for the Roma people in the Czech Republic. It’s their one example of racial issues that are similar to those of the US, though obviously with quite a different history. Then the rest of that day was spent frantically finishing our Cultural Studies by 5 pm, which several of us were united in that effort!

Until Next Time,

Joe

I apologize for falling behind: Final Projects, Final Papers, Final Exams… we’re in the thick of wrapping up our intensive part of the semester, so things have gotten a little… busy. Before I summarize the latest two Czech’ns, I have to go back to our second extended excursion of the semester.

So, I’ve made this really big deal about Central Europe. So what? Big deal! Well, this semester is more than just about Prague and the Czech Republic. Indeed, almost exclusively the history of this semester has been about Czechoslovakia, a different country than the one we are in now. But now Slovakia is its own country. And if we’re going to take the opportunity to explore one country outside of the Czech Republic, we might as well do Central Europe at least a little bit of justice.

The trip started out with Krakow, Poland. I was swept away with the beauty of the city. I saw some of the most beautiful autumn days I had ever seen in my life. I did not capture photos of it, because I felt they would not do it justice (also I kept forgetting my camera in the hotel… but I really do also believe that photos would not have done the beauty of the experience justice). The first day, we spent the morning learning about communism in Poland, having just spent the last two weeks learning about communism in Czechoslovakia. What many of us picked up on was that the resistance to communism was much more violent in Poland than it was in Czechoslovakia. Some people attribute that to Czechoslovakia playing the “we’re always the victim card” (in reference to historical events, as well as the more recent Munich Agreement of 1938). Talking to our AD however, that would be over simplifying the situation. She said, as we learned about the next couple weeks, that dissidence DID exist in Czechoslovakia, but in a different form. For Poland it was in the manual laborers, and in this country it was up to the artists and intellectuals to lead the dissidence. I plan to ask our panel board (basically all our lecturers for the past semester) tomorrow, why they think that difference is.

In the afternoon, we broke into two groups. One group went to go into discussions with an NGO, and the other group followed our Polish host to Nowa Huta, an intact Stalinist district of Krakow, to go see the effects of the Stalinist communism on the area, and to see an exhibit as well. Then we regrouped to learn a little about an organization working to regain less desirable spaces (such as car garages) for artistic and cultural purposes.

We had the weekend off to go see whatever interested us in Poland. I spent Saturday largely on my own. I was too enamored by the beauty of the autumn scenery to try to keep to other people’s schedules and fast paces through the city. So I went to look at the Old Synagogue in Krakow, and got to see the outside of it, as it was in a religious session for being Saturday morning. After that, I made my way down to Oskar Schindler’s factory. I wasn’t too terribly impressed, but I think that’s because I was mostly on the inside, and by that time was being driven by the need for lunch, so I stopped at the nearby pizzeria, which was quite good (very typical). The next day, the schedule was completely taken up by the visit to Auschwitz. See the previous post to read about it.

Monday was our departing day from Poland, and sadly, our half-way point to the excursion. We spent the next two days (and that evening) in the Čierny Balog region of Slovakia. We arrived to a presentation about the region, and a very filling dinner (though not particularly traditionally Slovak, i.e. pasta). The next day, we visited the Marek family eco-farm, got to hang out with lots of animals, and learn about rural practices such as creating your own cheese, and all the legalities of what you’re allowed to name the cheese and what you’re not. There were 4 dogs, and 3 kittens (I think, maybe just 2) who were very peaceful for the most part. There were cows and pigs as well. It was quite the farm. Most of the day we were allowed to relax and explore, to take in the home at our own pace. Then we had the presentations, and in that time, flipping through one of their guest  books, I found the SIT group with our AD from 2011, which ironically happened to be the group with Joe, the previous Redlands student in the Czech Republic program. That night, we got to experience traditional Slovakian dancing. We had a dance team show up in costume, and show us a few very basic dances. I even won a little ceramic shot glass!

The next day was a rather inspiring one, as a writer. The morning was spent at the Vydra information center (the organization coordinating our visit) and then experiencing the old railway system. On the other end of that trip, we learned about the production of local traditional crafts. First we got to listen to a little bit of Heligon music (a small accordion instrument) and then examine homemade knives that were crafted (they were NICE, and not surprisingly, sold for about $300 apiece). Lastly we got to see the production of colorful woven threads (can be used for sturdy rope or as bracelets, like we were all given one – like a friendship bracelet kind of thread).

What was so inspiring however, was that afternoon. One group went to a couple’s home to learn about domestic life, while others, including myself, went on a walk through the Dobroč Forest, which was strikingly similar to the Black Forest in Germany. I got talking to a couple people during the visit about fairy-tales, and how this was similar to the German forest, and how so many Germanic fairytales take place in forests… this is why. There’s just something enchanting about them, especially when it is misting and raining like it was that day. It gives it a mysterious, though not an ominous, feel to the experience. When we finally returned, we had a chance for some hot drinks before our train arrived to take us back to the bus, to head back to the ski lodge.

Then we departed by the bus to head over to Žilina. Our first night there was really creepy. We arrived at this gigantic hotel, Hotel Slavia, which according to our AD is a socialist disaster of a hotel. The hallways are dimly lit, everything is evenly uniform, and the rooms were cramp. The doors creaked, darkness was a general theme, and we were pretty sure there were ghosts around every corner of the hotel. And the place was HUGE! Before settling in for the night, a small group of us went to this pizzeria for dinner, recommended by our AD, and the walk was very unsettling. People were just standing around, it looked like drug deals were going down, and the “public” in the central square was non-existent. It could’ve passed as a ghost town, in the US, no exaggeration. On the way back, we were pretty sure we were being followed, forcing us to group a little tighter together, and pick up our pace back to the hotel. After this, I returned to a completely dark room, a mistake to not have left the lights on, as the others had.

But there IS more to Žilina than this creepy hotel. The next day we visited this cultural center that was made by shipping containers and beer crates, using the highway entrance ramps as a roof to the building. That pretty much describes the character of this place. It was low budget, low cost center, devoted to reinvigorating the cultural scene into the city. After those morning presentations, we split into two groups again, one a theater group and the other a book making group. I went with the book makers. The first part of the afternoon we spent learning about this woman whose career is binding, repairing and restoring books. Some of the books were really intricate projects that you would never really find with a mass producing publishing company. There was even an ISP from an earlier student left at the house, which was really cool. After this presentation, we got to try our hand at making our own books. We folded the paper, sewed the little booklets together, glued the binding and the covers on, and then the next morning decorated the covers. Now I have my own little blue book with some gold stars stamped on the front of it, that I plan to use to collect quotes in.

And that was it! That was the entire excursion! We were free by 11:30 that Friday morning. I left to catch the earliest train out to Prague, because I was going to stop by one more country before my traveling came to an end: Germany! I was on my way to Munich to go visit a high school friend. Despite the stressful weekend, I’m very glad that I did spend the weekend with him. It was fun to catch up, it was cool to get to see all the different cathedrals around Munich, learn a little about its history again, and be in a rather familiar language again. When hanging around some of his friends, we were speaking German, and I could understand all of it, which was quite cool. The second night we did a bit of bar hopping, but I refrained from anything, partly because I wanted some money left for breakfast the next morning! But yeah, that was Germany in a nutshell, and I get to look forward to his visit to Prague in two weeks!

Until Next Time,

Joe