Where do I start? I just read a Facebook post by a friend who I studied abroad with, saying that the experience cannot be summed up in just a single post, other than to say she couldn’t believe the semester was over. As I sit here in North Carolina, about to embark on the last leg of my (roughly) 24 hour long travel period from Prague to Mobile, Alabama, I find myself already reflecting on some of the parts that are gone, that are different than when I was here last time… before I lived in Europe for nearly 4 months.

But maybe I should start with the title. I spent about a week trying to decide what the title of this inevitable post would be. At first I thought ????? would make a good title, as the end of this semester raises more questions than it does answers. It certainly might stand a better chance at drawing attention than my titles usually do. But somehow, it didn’t really feel like a satisfactory summary of my experience in the Czech Republic. Then I thought about 121314, to commemorate the very special day that I was flying home in conclusion of the program: the last day of this century that the month-day-year will line up consecutively (bet you didn’t see THAT one coming, did you?). But again, it lacked any Czech reference. As I was sitting on the plane this evening, I observed perhaps one of the most beautiful sunsets I think I have ever seen in my life. The sky was filled with vivid colors from red to deep sky blue, the lines between them elegantly blurred, and the sun was at the center of it all, the most intense fire-red ball of light you have ever seen. It lit up crazy looking clouds in even crazier ways. I thought about the title Taste the Rainbow, and I appreciated the visual side of it of what I was experiencing, as well as the cultural rainbow I had just spent 4 months immersed in. I considered briefly doing something with my “Czech’ns” for the last post, but I decided that I wasn’t checking in, but rather, checking out. And that’s when the title came to me.

Ok, now that you know more about my titling creative process than you ever cared to know, what actual thoughts do I have on the semester? Like my friend, it is difficult to pinpoint, in words, the summary of this experience. Ne, actually it is impossible. (Sorry, NO – still adjusting back to English :P). When I think back to our orientation week, or even before that… our first dinner that Saturday night where we met our Academic Director, it feels like a life-time ago. I really, seriously cannot believe that that occurred on the same adventure that I just left from early this morning.

What has happened since?

We met the most amazing professors, many of them having played critical roles in the dissidence against the Communist regime throughout the 70s and 80s, some of them having even met Vaclav Havel while he was still alive, I believe. For those who may be less familiar, Vaclav Havel was the playwright who led the Velvet Revolution against the Communist regime, effectively overthrowing it in early December 1989, and taking over as Czechoslovakia (and in 1993 the Czech Republic’s) first president.

We went on the most amazing excursions. We got to see the Sudetenland, Dresden (Germany), Krakow (Poland), Cierny Balog (Slovakia), Zilina (Slovakia) and Narnia (Czech Republic) – (no, quite literally, Narnia. I’m serious). We got to meet some truly amazing and inspiring people who live in the rural regions of the Czech Republic as well.  We met so many artists and activists who have shown us the commitment to their passion despite a lack of supplies, money or perhaps even support. The people who live in this region, Central Europe, are more committed to their passion and the lives than anyone (any Americans especially) might guess without going in an seeing it. And what do they have to show for it? Not anything the typical American would value. No extravagant facilities, in fact often times these places are in a back alley through several doorways, or perhaps under a highway (literally). They have no excess wealth, in fact they often times rely on volunteers doing it because they love to do it. What they do have is a committed community. They have a way of life that makes them truly happy. Most of all, they have the reality that they are making a positive difference, even if it is for a small community. Sometimes the most beautiful transformations emerge from the smallest impacts.

We got challenged in political and cultural assumptions that we had made about our own culture. Living in one of the most (if not the most) ethnically homogenous country in the world, we had quite a different perspective on racial issues than what we see in the US. At the same time, the argument could be made we got barely any education on the Roma discrimination in the Czech Republic, which could speak volumes about the racial situation in that country.

While I’m on the topic of race, I will also say we got to observe some critical moments in the US from afar, which proved interesting to say the least (thinking of Ferguson). First of all, we got to observe the midterm elections take place, which were (in my opinion) disappointingly conservative. And to hear that the only choices for people in Alabama were to either vote republican or not at all, makes me despair even more at our “democracy” that we live in and the unbridled capitalism that is driving it. The other critical moments were the Michael Brown-Darren Wilson decision and the Eric Garner video (and decision) and the huge outcry of rage that has swept the US in response to these events. I surprised myself with how much I had to say in response to the events as well, which brings me to the final and concluding part of this post.

What has this semester done for me? I’m sure there are tons and tons of things that I will discover over the course of the next several months, years, and possibly even decades, but what am I aware of right now? Well, for starters, getting off the plane, I realized I could no longer attribute overly pushy people on transportation to their Czech-ness, which actually made me sadder than I thought it was, not for the blame part, but because the “Czech-ness” that surrounded me is no longer a part of my reality. More importantly however, I am aware at a greater burning desire to be active upon my return to the US. Maybe not over winter break, but going to school. No longer wasting my time, but finding parts of my life, of my society that I’m not satisfied, and taking those little steps that I am able to, to do my part of changing the greater picture. That may be my greatest takeaway from the semester, even more than anything I learned in creative writing all semester.

Ultimately however, this semester would not have been nearly so successful without the people that we had the opportunity and privilege to meet and learn from. My heart goes out in gratitude to my host family, first of all. Thank you to them for hosting and putting up with me all semester! Thank you to Sarah Brock for not just being a great Academic Director all semester, but a great mentor and friend who made the experience memorable (and for being the perfect Ms. Frizzle!!!). Thank you to our lecturers Dr. Vrba, Dr. Day, Petr Sokol, Martina and Suzanne (our language instructors) for memorable classes and giving a solid understanding of what Czech culture and history is all about. For me personally, thank you most of all to Petra Hůlová for an amazing semester of studying creative writing, but even more for taking the personal time to work with me on my ISP and helping me to create a product that I am proud of. It has meant more to me than I can express, and I hope that some day in the future our paths might cross again.

Thank you,

Czeching Out,

Joe

I’m writing this from the warmth and safety of our retreat lodge, and it’s quite nice. It seems hard to believe that we’re really down to less than 48 hours here (for some of us) and this winter-wonderland retreat could not have been a better ending to such a semester. I am not here to reflect on the semester however, but to discuss the second half of my ISP period. The reflection will come on Saturday.

The third week of the ISP period provided a more relaxing environment after the chaotic 2^nd week of traveling and largely not being home in Prague. I met with Ondřej Buddeus and Marek Šindelka for interviews this week, and started thinking about how the whole project was going to fit together.

This week I also started revising the two stories. What I thought would be a relatively quick and easy revision process allowing for a quick transition to compiling my journal for the final paper turned into a long, messy and stressful process of frustration and delaying in terms of finishing the project.

Part of the problem was that I was putting a lot of work into typing up the interview transcripts and writing mini (or perhaps not so mini) essays on each of the interviews, analyzing the most important parts of what was said and evaluating my process as the interviewer and what I would do differently next time. However, once I finished the interviews, then I started working on the revisions and I decided to go after the second story first because we had most recently discussed how to change it, and it had significantly less problems than the first story did. The second story (the first one that I wrote) was quite problematic, largely because I was indecisive in which way to specify the conflict in the story (which I had identified as one of the biggest necessities to revise the story).

It ended up I was up late Sunday night writing a three page free write until I had hammered down an improved (and believable) plot/conflict for the story. Ending up being about 1am when I finished, I decided to save writing the story until Monday morning, which was easier that night, but led to some stress for the final week.

The last week, like the second week, was particularly stressful, though because the ISP and it’s multitude of components were due by 5pm on Friday, so the weekend was not a working period this time.

The week opened with my rewriting the first story early Monday morning. Then I reworked the ending to the second story one more time before sending it to Petra. After that, I started compiling the field journal and wrote the essay to the second interview (with Marek). The rest of the week was spent compiling the field journal and writing the final paper for ISP. Nothing terribly exciting: just focusing and stress. It was pretty cool the last few days how we all returned to the school and made it a community effort to work on our ISP Papers, even taking a group study break on Thursday for dinner, where even our AD joined us.

Relief did not come, however, until after I presented my ISP on the following Tuesday afternoon, of week 15. And now we’re down to less than 24 hours of being together as a program, and I’m down to less than 36 hours in Prague/Czech Republic. Weird.

Until Next Time,

Joe