Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
The Final "Ein Bulldog in Deutschland" Column
This is the final "Ein Bulldog in Deutschland" column. The Bulldog Weekly is coming out with its last issue for this academic year this week.
Since this is the last issue of The Bulldog Weekly for the ’08 – ’09 academic year, I decided to take my column out for a final drink at the Dreisam Ufercafe.
The Dreisam Ufercafe is a beer garden on the grassy banks of the Donau River. The river flows lazily through the heart of Freiburg, a quiet German city in the Black Forest.
The sun was setting in the west toward France, America, California and Redlands. Children played in the sand near the river and adults and teenagers drank beer and sun bathed, the sky was bluer than a perfect Sunday morning and the air was warm and the flowers that dotted the trees and the lawns were yellow and white.
I sat across a picnic table from my column. I had just informed him that this was the last issue. He didn’t take the news well. There was a far away look in his eyes. He realized that when my pen stopped scribbling on his yellow surface, he’d be done – terminated.
We were quiet for a few moments, looking through the trees and past the river as the sun sank in the distance over the dark hills of the Black Forest. Then he turned to me and asked: “Musst du Ende meine Leben (Must you end my life)?”
“Ja, Ich muss,” I responded. “Yes, I must.”
“Warum?” He asked with panic in his voice. “Why?” And he continued: “Remember the German punk rock show we went to? Remember our time together in Berlin? Remember watching the Godfather trilogy with the Swedes? Remember playing basketball at Seeparkstadion together? Remember…”
“Ja! Ich erinnere mich an!” I interrupted as he rambled on. “Yes! I remember! It has all been great. From Basel to Freiburg to Strasbourg, I love the Rhineland and the Black Forest, especially in the spring time, but I must go.”
“But what about the beer?”
“It is true, German beer is great.”
“What about your suitemates?”
“Yes, my suitemates have been welcoming, kind, and good friends – they’ve been wonderful.”
“What about the food,” a sly smile crossed his face. “The bratwurst and the street side bakeries?”
“Yes, it was all wonderful.”
“Then why must you leave?”
“Weil…” I said. “Because… I’m an American and America is my home and America has a lot of problems that young Americans will have to fix. This is why I must go home.”
Then I put down my pen, finished my beer and started walking down the street, over the river and past the ancient buildings – westbound.
The Dreisam Ufercafe is a beer garden on the grassy banks of the Donau River. The river flows lazily through the heart of Freiburg, a quiet German city in the Black Forest.
The sun was setting in the west toward France, America, California and Redlands. Children played in the sand near the river and adults and teenagers drank beer and sun bathed, the sky was bluer than a perfect Sunday morning and the air was warm and the flowers that dotted the trees and the lawns were yellow and white.
I sat across a picnic table from my column. I had just informed him that this was the last issue. He didn’t take the news well. There was a far away look in his eyes. He realized that when my pen stopped scribbling on his yellow surface, he’d be done – terminated.
We were quiet for a few moments, looking through the trees and past the river as the sun sank in the distance over the dark hills of the Black Forest. Then he turned to me and asked: “Musst du Ende meine Leben (Must you end my life)?”
“Ja, Ich muss,” I responded. “Yes, I must.”
“Warum?” He asked with panic in his voice. “Why?” And he continued: “Remember the German punk rock show we went to? Remember our time together in Berlin? Remember watching the Godfather trilogy with the Swedes? Remember playing basketball at Seeparkstadion together? Remember…”
“Ja! Ich erinnere mich an!” I interrupted as he rambled on. “Yes! I remember! It has all been great. From Basel to Freiburg to Strasbourg, I love the Rhineland and the Black Forest, especially in the spring time, but I must go.”
“But what about the beer?”
“It is true, German beer is great.”
“What about your suitemates?”
“Yes, my suitemates have been welcoming, kind, and good friends – they’ve been wonderful.”
“What about the food,” a sly smile crossed his face. “The bratwurst and the street side bakeries?”
“Yes, it was all wonderful.”
“Then why must you leave?”
“Weil…” I said. “Because… I’m an American and America is my home and America has a lot of problems that young Americans will have to fix. This is why I must go home.”
Then I put down my pen, finished my beer and started walking down the street, over the river and past the ancient buildings – westbound.
Friday, April 3, 2009
NATO Youth Summit and President Obama
So I participated in the NATO Youth summit in Strasbourg, France the last two days. I wrote an article for the Bulldog Weekly about the first day, this is what I wrote:
Thousands of rioters fought the cops in the streets of London following the G-20 Summit Wednesday, and as such acts of rebellion usually go, they got bloodied-up, beat down and from what I saw on the television, they didn’t look all too jolly.
Thousands of rioters fought the cops in the streets of London following the G-20 Summit Wednesday, and as such acts of rebellion usually go, they got bloodied-up, beat down and from what I saw on the television, they didn’t look all too jolly.
A day later, the preliminary sessions of the NATO Summit began in Strasbourg, France, which I attended with the IES-EU program for a youth summit titled, “NATO in 2020: What Lies Ahead?”.
We mostly heard NATO propaganda in a brief four-member panelist discussion, followed by student questions. Then we heard a similar discussion with similar questions fielded by the keynote speaker, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, the Secretary General of NATO.
And after all this international-collective-security business was done, the good folks at NATO treated us to closing cocktails. This pretty much meant that we were entitled to all the little hand foods and wine we could get our paws on.
And since America is the chief contributor to NATO, and since I’m an American, and since I keep getting these emails from my mom about how much I owe in taxes by April 14, I figured this was a good opportunity to eat and drink as much of my NATO tax money as possible.
It was a good time, most because of the international youths I met. There were roughly 30 nationalities participating in the conference. The Canadians and the French were a hoot.
So then we returned to Freiburg, which is an hour southeast of Strasbourg via bus. It is late as I pound out this column, and in just five hours I’m due to catch a bus again to Strasbourg where an estimated number of 30,000 protestors wait to demonstrate against NATO. Officials in Strasbourg have pooled security forces from neighboring cities in Germany and France, in fear similar riots as those in London.
Besides the protestors and the securities forces, also waiting in Strasbourg to deliver a speech Friday is the President of the United States.
Barack Obama is his name, I think.
I’ll have to look that up.
Here is a link to the NATO website about the youth summit: http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/news_52387.htm
The second day began all too soon for me. I had to be at the bus station at 6:10 in the morning. This was especially tolling since I didn’t go to sleep until nearly two in the morning the night before. We had not arrived back in Freiburg until 11 pm and then I had to write a column for the Bulldog Weekly.
Well I slept through my alarm and then woke up finally at 6:10, frantic but still in a morning daze. I threw on my business formal clothes, grabbed my passport, NATO Pass (if we forgot our NATO Pass we would not have been allowed back in the summit, the security was very tight), and invitation to the Barack Obama Town Hall meeting. I raced down to the bus stop across the street and was relieved to find that the bus was running late. So I was fine. But I realized that, in the panic of the morning, I had forgotten my camera. So I’m without personal pictures of the day. Many people took pictures though, so I’m sure I’ll find some to bum for this blog.
We heard from some top notch military and security planners, and even heard, in the morning session, an impassioned speech delivered in French – I understood via the translation – by Bernard-Henri Levy, a proclaimed philosopher, writer and columnist. To be frank: the man was a little off the reservation. Noble in his ideas, no doubt, but he put such an emphasis on human rights that he suggested we – comfortable western nations – sacrifice everything to bring these rights to the people of every nation. Of course there are different cultures and traditions to take into consideration, and the personal sacrifice of the soldiers and their families from the nations expected to carry out such missions, but he truly believed what he was saying, it seemed. The other five members of the panel largely disagreed with Levy, and for good reason. America and Europe can’t afford to fight a million fronts. We have a tough enough time handling two in the same – the Middle East – global region as it is, not to mention our global security commitments. But to listen to a “French philosopher (whatever that means)” deliver an impassioned speech in French was interesting, funny and an overall good experience.
The rest of the speakers spoke in English, which was nice. They all seemed to be much more legitimate and educated in security matters relating to NATO.
After two of these panel discussions, we then grabbed ham and cheese sandwiches to-go and then walked to the arena where President Obama was to deliver a short speech and then field answers and questions.
For reasons I probably don’t need to explain, I was excited. I felt like a five year old kid going to a major league baseball game. This was the first time I saw a President of the United States in person. I had never even seen a former president, or a person to be president, in person. Those campaign rallies just don’t really make it out to blue old California too often, much less Riverside or San Bernardino counties.
The security detail was like airport security times two, but it wasn’t too much to ask, and perfectly understandable. We shuffled into the area and waited for over an hour for the security people to seat the few thousand spectators. Then President Obama appeared, the crowd went wild, he delivered a speech, fielded five questions and then left the building.
I sat behind the President’s podium, but a little ways up in the audience. I’m not in the frame of the video camera, but I am somewhere in the middle of the large picture I stole and posted at the top of this blog from the NY Times. Here is the link to the New York Times article about the event; I believe a video is included: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/04/world/europe/04prexy.html?hp
It didn’t take soon to realize that what the talking-heads on CNN said of Barack Obama is true. He may be a once in a lifetime communicator. He does connect with a crowd, about weighty issues, in an astounding way. It was one thing to have seen him speak many times on television, but quite another to be there, especially since it was a rather intimate setting compared to some of his Super Bowl type speeches.
I, of course, being the cynical student I am, question some of his ideas about how to fix the U.S. and world economy, but I do hope he’s right, and that my doubts are wrong. He’s proved me wrong before. That said; there are some things that he’s doing for the economy and the war in Afghanistan that I very much support.
But no matter how I feel about the policies of the President, to see him in person, and to hear him speak, is a memory I’ll forever keep.
Here is a link to the NATO website about the youth summit: http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/news_52387.htm
The second day began all too soon for me. I had to be at the bus station at 6:10 in the morning. This was especially tolling since I didn’t go to sleep until nearly two in the morning the night before. We had not arrived back in Freiburg until 11 pm and then I had to write a column for the Bulldog Weekly.
Well I slept through my alarm and then woke up finally at 6:10, frantic but still in a morning daze. I threw on my business formal clothes, grabbed my passport, NATO Pass (if we forgot our NATO Pass we would not have been allowed back in the summit, the security was very tight), and invitation to the Barack Obama Town Hall meeting. I raced down to the bus stop across the street and was relieved to find that the bus was running late. So I was fine. But I realized that, in the panic of the morning, I had forgotten my camera. So I’m without personal pictures of the day. Many people took pictures though, so I’m sure I’ll find some to bum for this blog.
We heard from some top notch military and security planners, and even heard, in the morning session, an impassioned speech delivered in French – I understood via the translation – by Bernard-Henri Levy, a proclaimed philosopher, writer and columnist. To be frank: the man was a little off the reservation. Noble in his ideas, no doubt, but he put such an emphasis on human rights that he suggested we – comfortable western nations – sacrifice everything to bring these rights to the people of every nation. Of course there are different cultures and traditions to take into consideration, and the personal sacrifice of the soldiers and their families from the nations expected to carry out such missions, but he truly believed what he was saying, it seemed. The other five members of the panel largely disagreed with Levy, and for good reason. America and Europe can’t afford to fight a million fronts. We have a tough enough time handling two in the same – the Middle East – global region as it is, not to mention our global security commitments. But to listen to a “French philosopher (whatever that means)” deliver an impassioned speech in French was interesting, funny and an overall good experience.
The rest of the speakers spoke in English, which was nice. They all seemed to be much more legitimate and educated in security matters relating to NATO.
After two of these panel discussions, we then grabbed ham and cheese sandwiches to-go and then walked to the arena where President Obama was to deliver a short speech and then field answers and questions.
For reasons I probably don’t need to explain, I was excited. I felt like a five year old kid going to a major league baseball game. This was the first time I saw a President of the United States in person. I had never even seen a former president, or a person to be president, in person. Those campaign rallies just don’t really make it out to blue old California too often, much less Riverside or San Bernardino counties.
The security detail was like airport security times two, but it wasn’t too much to ask, and perfectly understandable. We shuffled into the area and waited for over an hour for the security people to seat the few thousand spectators. Then President Obama appeared, the crowd went wild, he delivered a speech, fielded five questions and then left the building.
I sat behind the President’s podium, but a little ways up in the audience. I’m not in the frame of the video camera, but I am somewhere in the middle of the large picture I stole and posted at the top of this blog from the NY Times. Here is the link to the New York Times article about the event; I believe a video is included: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/04/world/europe/04prexy.html?hp
It didn’t take soon to realize that what the talking-heads on CNN said of Barack Obama is true. He may be a once in a lifetime communicator. He does connect with a crowd, about weighty issues, in an astounding way. It was one thing to have seen him speak many times on television, but quite another to be there, especially since it was a rather intimate setting compared to some of his Super Bowl type speeches.
I, of course, being the cynical student I am, question some of his ideas about how to fix the U.S. and world economy, but I do hope he’s right, and that my doubts are wrong. He’s proved me wrong before. That said; there are some things that he’s doing for the economy and the war in Afghanistan that I very much support.
But no matter how I feel about the policies of the President, to see him in person, and to hear him speak, is a memory I’ll forever keep.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Auschwitz
My IES-Study Abroad Group visited Auschwitz, the World War II concentration camp, Sunday, March 22, 2009. I tried for hours to put into words a reflection of Auschwitz, but I find it impossible to do so at this time. The experience was too important to leave out of my records, so here is an except of an email I wrote to the editors of the Bulldog Weekly. This is the best I've been able to do: 
So I tried to write about my visit to Auschwitz for the Bulldog Weekly, and I couldn’t. I think it’s important for each generation to continue putting into words their specific reaction to the Holocaust, but I’m not yet able to do so, even with a million words. I tried for many hours, and I even tried to write for a less formal forum with my blog, but how to describe the emotion and sadness one feels from such a place, and how to fathom the catastrophic cruelty that occurred there, is beyond the capabilities of my mind and this keyboard.
So even though Auschwitz has weighed on my mind this week, I can’t write about it in the form of a travel log, this is ultimately what I have come to realize. Perhaps someday I’ll write about the Holocaust in the form of a reflection, but it would take much time and a completely different approach.
And this is an email I wrote to the Bulldog Weekly advisor a couple days ago. After all this time trying to write, this simple email probably best and most honestly reflects what I saw and felt at Auschwitz:
I went to Auschwitz last Sunday, March 22. I plan to write about the experience, but it's tough. Before going to Auschwitz, it was hard to comprehend how humans could be so cruel. I knew the amount of deaths was in the millions and I had read about the conditions the victims had to endure, but then to actually see the living conditions, the solitary confinement and torture chambers, the ovens and the gas chambers and the stockpiles of women's hair - it made the atrocity so real, and scary. Even to just see the train platform where millions of people, mostly Jewish, were delivered, mostly unaware of their fate, was beyond words. It was pure evil.
This is the platform where millions of people entered Auschwitz from all over Europe. They were separated immediately after they stepped off the train. Women, children and ail bodied men, were killed in the gas chambers moments later. Men strong enough to work were kept in the camp, fed very little and sent to work long hours of manual labor. The picture below is the entrence to the camp. "arbeit macht frei," means "work makes free." (the sign seems so absurd) This is where the prisioners able to work marched out in the mornings and back into in the evenings.
So I tried to write about my visit to Auschwitz for the Bulldog Weekly, and I couldn’t. I think it’s important for each generation to continue putting into words their specific reaction to the Holocaust, but I’m not yet able to do so, even with a million words. I tried for many hours, and I even tried to write for a less formal forum with my blog, but how to describe the emotion and sadness one feels from such a place, and how to fathom the catastrophic cruelty that occurred there, is beyond the capabilities of my mind and this keyboard.
So even though Auschwitz has weighed on my mind this week, I can’t write about it in the form of a travel log, this is ultimately what I have come to realize. Perhaps someday I’ll write about the Holocaust in the form of a reflection, but it would take much time and a completely different approach.
And this is an email I wrote to the Bulldog Weekly advisor a couple days ago. After all this time trying to write, this simple email probably best and most honestly reflects what I saw and felt at Auschwitz:
I went to Auschwitz last Sunday, March 22. I plan to write about the experience, but it's tough. Before going to Auschwitz, it was hard to comprehend how humans could be so cruel. I knew the amount of deaths was in the millions and I had read about the conditions the victims had to endure, but then to actually see the living conditions, the solitary confinement and torture chambers, the ovens and the gas chambers and the stockpiles of women's hair - it made the atrocity so real, and scary. Even to just see the train platform where millions of people, mostly Jewish, were delivered, mostly unaware of their fate, was beyond words. It was pure evil.
This is the platform where millions of people entered Auschwitz from all over Europe. They were separated immediately after they stepped off the train. Women, children and ail bodied men, were killed in the gas chambers moments later. Men strong enough to work were kept in the camp, fed very little and sent to work long hours of manual labor. The picture below is the entrence to the camp. "arbeit macht frei," means "work makes free." (the sign seems so absurd) This is where the prisioners able to work marched out in the mornings and back into in the evenings.
Krakow: Part 1 of Central European Reise
So I am traveling through Central and Eastern Europe with my IES-EU study abroad program. We left early Friday morning, caught a plane out of Stuttgart and then touched down at an airport in a small city 45-minutes outside of Krakow Poland.
I started work on a poem on the plane flight. The poem was inspired by a general feeling of jovial conviction in a grounded belief that there’s a creator of the universe. These feelings were then enforced by a particular passage in a John Updike novel, Rabbit, Run, but, like every poem that I’ve ever written, the poem changed many times and has gone through many drafts. My visit, a few days later, to Auschwitz, a former concentration camp, eliminated much of the jovial spirit of the poem. And now it takes more of a Deists perspective toward the Creator of the universe – one that acknowledges God as the creator, but with little interventions in the affairs of the world thereafter.
I wonder now if people raised Presbyterian, under the doctrine of John Calvin and John Knox, tend to see the world in a Deists point of view – whether they know it or not. It seems like the next logical and sensible understanding of faith. For instance: Ben Franklin was raised Presbyterian and he also subscribed to the Deists perspective. But I don’t know if I can ever completely believe in Deism, I’m too superstitious.
Oh, and I would post the poem here, but I’m too superstitious to present a poem before its completion.
Well, the first day was full of travel and I felt exhausted and hungry as we arrived at the Hotel Ibis. The hotel was a few blocks away from the city center in a neighborhood that seemed to be built about forty or fifty years ago. The buildings were all blocks, made of cement, with dark windows. I can say with some confidence that these buildings were designed by a Soviet committee with only the lowest common denominator in mind, no creativity, color or innovation. The aesthetics of these buildings was not helped by the early sunset and snowing skies. The winter weather and buildings in Poland was a stark contrast to the spring of Freiburg. A certain song, from a certain Mel Brooks movie, came to mind.
But the hotel we stayed at was quite nice. As far as I could tell, the building was only about ten years old, and the rooms were spacious and neat. Next to its neighboring buildings, it was an all too obvious contrast between the western and the eastern eras of the Cold War and post-Cold War.
So after getting settled into the hotel room, I went out with a small group of people to the city center. The city center was gorgeous. The buildings are built during the height of Polish civilization. Before World War Two, Krakow had been the cultural center of Central Europe. Its buildings from the 17th, 16th and 15th centuries still stood tall and its castle still stands at the highest point in the town. Krakow has over 100 Catholic churches. The Polish peoples are very Catholic. Poland had been conquered numerous times since the 18th century, so often that the only constant institution in Polish life was the church. Not a few moments went by where I didn’t see a Catholic nun or monk.
Well that night we decided to go to dinner at a Southwestern restaurant called The Sioux. The place was decked out with cowboy and Indian décor and its waiters and waitresses were dressed like cowboys and cowgirls. Even in California and my travels through Arizona, New Mexico and Baja Oklahoma (Texas), I have never seen a place so Southwestern themed. It was over the top.
I ate a beef fajita, but it wasn’t very good and the beer was only mediocre. The waitress took forever to bring us our bill and then when we finally received it, she wouldn’t allow us to pay separate. In every other restaurant that I’ve been to in Europe, I was allowed to pay separate. We weren’t prepared to organize a bill. So after about twenty minutes of calculating and breaking bills and such, we were finally able to put the money down and leave.
After dinner, I went to a pub that was across the street from my hotel with Kyle, a guy from the IES program. We wanted to check out the pub because it looked so ominous. The pub was in a large, four story building, made completely of cement it seemed. As I opened the door I was greeted with a cloud of smoke. A thick haze made the light seem even dimmer than it already was inside the small room. We both ordered a beer and then found a small table, there was nothing but small tables, and watched a soccer game until we were done with our beers. The glass my beer was served in had an interesting label of two Polish people dancing. I decided to purchase the glass, sort of figured it makes a cool souvenir.
The next morning was full of lectures about Poland and her relationship to Russia. The Poles are obsessed with Russia. From the tone of the lecture you’d think the Russies are docking their ships off the Northern Polish shore in the Baltic Sea with their nuclear arsenal aimed at Warsaw. In my opinion, these two historic enemies need to patch up their relationship. There is no way in Hell Russia invades Eastern Europe anytime soon. It would be too disastrous for everybody, it just doesn’t make sense, but it is the perspective that we receive from the Poles. I guess that’s what happens when a nation fights another nation almost non-stop for nearly 300 years. The professors that travel with us were quite frustrated with the Polish perspective, but then again, it is the Polish perspective, one that we, as students studying the EU, should hear.
After the lectures, we took a Krakow city tour. It lasted about two hours. We received a lot of information about the history of Krakow. The city center was beautiful. All of the buildings were built before the dark Soviet years. There were statues and pretty normal looking European streets. It contrasted sharply with the sector of town our hotel was in.
I went shopping at the Krakow market, bought some gifts for Leah, Mom and Kelly, and I was able to purchase a nice chess board for about $10. Most of the items in the Krakow market were cheap, but of decent quality, so I figured to buy gifts and; when else will I be able to purchase a nice chess board? It has the pictures of all the Polish Kings on the board.
That night I went out with some of the people from my program to a traditional Polish restaurant. It was much better than the Southwestern themed place I ate at the night before. I order beef stew and dumplings, es war gut! A three-piece Polish band played traditional Polish folk songs.
I started work on a poem on the plane flight. The poem was inspired by a general feeling of jovial conviction in a grounded belief that there’s a creator of the universe. These feelings were then enforced by a particular passage in a John Updike novel, Rabbit, Run, but, like every poem that I’ve ever written, the poem changed many times and has gone through many drafts. My visit, a few days later, to Auschwitz, a former concentration camp, eliminated much of the jovial spirit of the poem. And now it takes more of a Deists perspective toward the Creator of the universe – one that acknowledges God as the creator, but with little interventions in the affairs of the world thereafter.
I wonder now if people raised Presbyterian, under the doctrine of John Calvin and John Knox, tend to see the world in a Deists point of view – whether they know it or not. It seems like the next logical and sensible understanding of faith. For instance: Ben Franklin was raised Presbyterian and he also subscribed to the Deists perspective. But I don’t know if I can ever completely believe in Deism, I’m too superstitious.
Oh, and I would post the poem here, but I’m too superstitious to present a poem before its completion.
Well, the first day was full of travel and I felt exhausted and hungry as we arrived at the Hotel Ibis. The hotel was a few blocks away from the city center in a neighborhood that seemed to be built about forty or fifty years ago. The buildings were all blocks, made of cement, with dark windows. I can say with some confidence that these buildings were designed by a Soviet committee with only the lowest common denominator in mind, no creativity, color or innovation. The aesthetics of these buildings was not helped by the early sunset and snowing skies. The winter weather and buildings in Poland was a stark contrast to the spring of Freiburg. A certain song, from a certain Mel Brooks movie, came to mind.
But the hotel we stayed at was quite nice. As far as I could tell, the building was only about ten years old, and the rooms were spacious and neat. Next to its neighboring buildings, it was an all too obvious contrast between the western and the eastern eras of the Cold War and post-Cold War.
So after getting settled into the hotel room, I went out with a small group of people to the city center. The city center was gorgeous. The buildings are built during the height of Polish civilization. Before World War Two, Krakow had been the cultural center of Central Europe. Its buildings from the 17th, 16th and 15th centuries still stood tall and its castle still stands at the highest point in the town. Krakow has over 100 Catholic churches. The Polish peoples are very Catholic. Poland had been conquered numerous times since the 18th century, so often that the only constant institution in Polish life was the church. Not a few moments went by where I didn’t see a Catholic nun or monk.
Well that night we decided to go to dinner at a Southwestern restaurant called The Sioux. The place was decked out with cowboy and Indian décor and its waiters and waitresses were dressed like cowboys and cowgirls. Even in California and my travels through Arizona, New Mexico and Baja Oklahoma (Texas), I have never seen a place so Southwestern themed. It was over the top.
I ate a beef fajita, but it wasn’t very good and the beer was only mediocre. The waitress took forever to bring us our bill and then when we finally received it, she wouldn’t allow us to pay separate. In every other restaurant that I’ve been to in Europe, I was allowed to pay separate. We weren’t prepared to organize a bill. So after about twenty minutes of calculating and breaking bills and such, we were finally able to put the money down and leave.
After dinner, I went to a pub that was across the street from my hotel with Kyle, a guy from the IES program. We wanted to check out the pub because it looked so ominous. The pub was in a large, four story building, made completely of cement it seemed. As I opened the door I was greeted with a cloud of smoke. A thick haze made the light seem even dimmer than it already was inside the small room. We both ordered a beer and then found a small table, there was nothing but small tables, and watched a soccer game until we were done with our beers. The glass my beer was served in had an interesting label of two Polish people dancing. I decided to purchase the glass, sort of figured it makes a cool souvenir.
The next morning was full of lectures about Poland and her relationship to Russia. The Poles are obsessed with Russia. From the tone of the lecture you’d think the Russies are docking their ships off the Northern Polish shore in the Baltic Sea with their nuclear arsenal aimed at Warsaw. In my opinion, these two historic enemies need to patch up their relationship. There is no way in Hell Russia invades Eastern Europe anytime soon. It would be too disastrous for everybody, it just doesn’t make sense, but it is the perspective that we receive from the Poles. I guess that’s what happens when a nation fights another nation almost non-stop for nearly 300 years. The professors that travel with us were quite frustrated with the Polish perspective, but then again, it is the Polish perspective, one that we, as students studying the EU, should hear.
After the lectures, we took a Krakow city tour. It lasted about two hours. We received a lot of information about the history of Krakow. The city center was beautiful. All of the buildings were built before the dark Soviet years. There were statues and pretty normal looking European streets. It contrasted sharply with the sector of town our hotel was in.
I went shopping at the Krakow market, bought some gifts for Leah, Mom and Kelly, and I was able to purchase a nice chess board for about $10. Most of the items in the Krakow market were cheap, but of decent quality, so I figured to buy gifts and; when else will I be able to purchase a nice chess board? It has the pictures of all the Polish Kings on the board.
That night I went out with some of the people from my program to a traditional Polish restaurant. It was much better than the Southwestern themed place I ate at the night before. I order beef stew and dumplings, es war gut! A three-piece Polish band played traditional Polish folk songs.
I would have liked to spend more time exploring the Krakow night life, the city center was lively each of the two nights we were there, but I had to wake up early, by 6:30, the next morning for the bus ride to Prague.
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