Update:
So, I'm in India, and I'm working through the shock, each day getting better than the next. But, I've had limited access to internet, and the internet I've had hasn't been wifi. So, I've been writing blog entries but not uploading them. The following are the 3 which I wrote on my first 3 days on the Indian Subcontinent.
Random Thought: 24,
written on September 10th, in the middle of the night
Wow,
I’m in India. It’s weird how you envision things. Ya know? Like, I’ve thought about going to India for so long now, but I really don’t think any thoughts or readings or research or plans really could have actually come close as to what it’d be like. It’s 3:36 in the morning and I’m at Indira Gandhi Airport, and this story is about as ironic as you can imagine.
So, when you’re in coming to a new place, especially a developing country, and you’re alone, the natural course of action is to ease yourself into it, right? Right. Unless you’re me. I, of course, intentionally made my arrival so that I would arrive at the Delhi International Airport at midnight…and then I would wait in the airport all night long to catch my next fight to Chennai, at 7:05 AM. This, of course, is all instead of booking a direct flight to Chennai, which could probably arrive at a pretty auspicious time. I don’t know why either.
So, awhile ago, I found out that the international terminal and the domestic terminal are actually four miles apart. I then find out that I actually have to get from one to the other…in the middle of the night. So, of course I’m expecting to just show up and have a fucking heart attack. Ya know? Like I don’t even know, I just am preparing for the worst. I’m so nervous on the flight over, and I just can’t accept the fact that I’m about to land in fucking India, and then when I finally land, it’s just….as easy as pie!
In fact, the most stressful thing about my evening so far has been this really bitchy lady behind me in Customs from the UK who was SO MAD that our line was taking so long, she even verbally accosted the Customs worker. She wanted me to join in, but I was like hell no sista, I am NOT gonna be thrown out of no India at midnight. Anyway, I hop on out of the plane and it’s literally just like arriving in Chicago or Detroit or whatever. I mean, this airport is shwank.
And even the international one itself is HUGE so I walk about a half a mile to get through customs and get my baggage, and of course every single sign is in English, I think there may have been like 2 in Hindi, and everyone is just SO NICE and I’m directed to this bus that transports people between terminals. I get on, and soon the bus fills up with all these locals, who are very helpful and conversational. Within 20 minutes, I’m where I need to be. The drive was semi-interesting, as I got to see something other than an airport, but it was dark. I then checked in for my next flight (4 hours early) and now, here I sit, in this cute little café area, surrounded by a KFC, Pizza Hut, Wifi “Laptop” Station (though you have to have a cell phone to actually use the wifi, dammit), and many sleepy travellers.
It’s just crazy how…not India this is. I mean, I know, I’ve only been inside airports (though I also drove 4 miles on the freeway), but like, I expected to walk outside to get to the bus and just be bum-rushed by beggars and overwhelmed with new smells and sounds and, yeah, just pass out or something. But this night has been…nice lol.
I don’t really know why though…maybe it’s because EVERY SINGLE THING is in English, or maybe it’s because everyone is SO nice. I mean really, everyone here treats you with such respect and you are always met by the biggest, most genuine smiles. This started with the very first flight attendant on my plane and continued until just now, in the security check. Customer Service here is DEFINITELY kicking Europe’s ass. I remember one night, the Danes and I just sat around talking all about customer service, and how for quite awhile, it seemed as though every single person we encountered hated their job and us for coming to their country. Here, even though it’s the middle of the night, I’ve been met by very helpful employees who were more than happy to assist me. And there’s just something so…well, genuine about it all, it’s quite refreshing.
I truly expected this evening to be the most stressful night of my entire trip, but as I sit here with my boarding pass, ready to board my flight 3 hours in advance, I’m definitely thinking that’s a no. Furthermore, I’m just…so happy right now. I can’t even put it into words.
Oh, and even though I’ve heard about it from countless people, it’s still so weird to see two men walking around holding hands. Oh! And I could have brought a bomb on my plane from Frankfurt. I have my messenger bag with me at all times, and it’s my carry-on on flights, and it’s full of…well, everything. I knew that when I put it into the scanner it would just go off like a bomb itself b/c it’s full of paper clips and pens and coins and god knows what else, and so of course, in line at Frankfurt, the machine freaked out. The security guard got it out, opened up, saw my Rough Guide to India, and asked
SG: Have you been to India?
J: Nope, I’m on my way.
SG: Really? How long?
J: About a month.
He flipped through my book and we made small talk about money, and that was it. He just waved me on. Wtf?!
- Josh A
Random Thought: 25
Written on September 11th
So, `
I have had two full days in India. Talk about fucking insane. I don’t even…whatever. If you thought my last post was ironic, it gets even more ironic that of course I actually do almost have a heart attack once I’m here. I don’t really know what happened, but once in my bed and just done with my first day, I was freaking the fuck out. I had just got done booking all my of flights home, so I knew that I was totally going to be home early, on October 23rd, and I was gonna get to Bali and to Vietnam and Chicago in pretty much the most perfect way possible, and I was officially on the second leg of my trip, and I was feeling great just movin’ along, feelin alive and all that bullshit I always spout…and then I just lost it.
I was up all night just thinking and missing Jason and missing my mom and being really whiny and pathetic. It was RIDICULOUS. I mean, it didn’t matter how logically I could force myself to look at things, nothing helped. Like, I knew that being here is important. It is! Being in India is pretty much the best thing I could possibly do with my life right now, if not the best thing I’ve ever done, because not only am I volunteering and actually doing something good for human kind for once in my life, I’m also bearing witness to things that everyone from white, middle class, Midwestern America needs to see: poverty, a developing country, disease, hunger, REALITY. I am expanding my horizons, padding my resume for grad school/previous jobs, and seeing the world. But last night, I would have honestly taken a direct flight home today if I had a little less willpower. Even the thought of seeing a familiar face, Jackie, as soon as
I’m done here didn’t help.
Today was much better. I still was annoying, but I went back and forth. I think the fact that I’m actually here and ticking off days is helpful. Like, the first day is always the hardest. This was true the first day I left Jason, and it’s true now. And tomorrow, I’ll actually move into my dorm, where I’ll be for 4 weeks and I’ll have my own space, air conditioner, and hopefully wifi. Then I can start my daily routine and…I really need one. Seriously. I am so tired of being a tourist.
I think that also compounded my mentality on day 1. I was already stressed, but what I was truly looking forward to about India was that I would be done just being a fucking tourist. Ya know? I am so tired of just walking around and finding a restaurant to eat at and then walking around more and then coming back to an unfamiliar hotel and then packing up the next day and lugging around my 40 pound backpack and then repeating the entire process.
That’s essentially all I’ve done my first two days in Hindustan. It’s pretty amusing how most people would love nothing more than to be taken on a free, private tour of the city upon arrival by a helpful, English-speaking local, but I was just like ‘Ugh. Fine.’ So, thank god for tomorrow. SO EXCITED!
To be fair though, essentially nothing actually stressful has happened to me. I got really lucky, in that there are two Americans staying at my hotel who are also here through my NGO and they were just super-nice, and showed me around, and took me to add minutes to my phone (yup, I have a cell now, call me), and just included me in their entire day. One’s from Wisconsin, so we talked about Chicago and how the Dells are ridiculous and the Midwest in general. I honestly think that without them I may have had a nervous breakdown and started crying. Because without them, I would have had 2 options: go out and explore a third-world country with no street signs on my own, or stay in all by myself all day in a hot, cramped hotel. Neither would have made my day A-OK.
Actually, there were some parts of my day with my fellow students that were exactly what I needed to feel better. Chris, the one from Wisconsin, told me that when he first arrived here, he literally was ready to just book a flight for the next day and go right home. He hated it and didn’t know how to deal. But the program director (whom I’ll meet tomorrow) talked him down. 7 weeks later, he loves it and is so glad he stayed. He and my other friend, Jessie, both told me to just take my time to adjust.
It took them both about 2-3 weeks before they really started getting into the groove. On top of this, Jessie also offered to be there for me if I need anything. Like, she said that when she got here, she wanted little things, like snacks for her room or a new pair of sandals, but didn’t know how to get anywhere or how to go about getting anything. And she was so nice and just totally offered to help me with anything I might need and gave me her phone number. She was like a gift from God, really. And we spent the day on this beautiful sea-side town with these ancient temples and carvings and a beautiful beach.
Another thing that gave me hope was that I was reminded again how short my trip really is. Jessie is staying in India for a total of 8 months…shit lol. She’s been here since July and is leaving in March. Chris got here August 1st, and isn’t leaving until November 28th. I’m out of here in 30 days, then I’ll be with Jackie O, someone I’ve known almost my entire life, for 5 days, so I realize that I should just calm down.
Oh! And neither Jessie nor Chris had been out of the US before. I know. INDIA was their very first experience outside home. Like, I’ve always wanted to go to India, but I wanted to go to Europe first to ease myself into it. I believed in this strategy so much that I went twice, and went east the second time around. It didn’t help. I’m still stressed, and my friends are doing just fine.
I guess it all comes down to the fact that I’m just not comfortable here. Yet, that is. Europe is one thing, ya know? Everywhere is attractive and easy and convenient, while here, everything is…well, not attractive, and complicated, and confusing. In Europe, I was in air conditioned youth hostels, surrounded by people who looked like me and sounded like me and watched the same TV shows as me. Here, I’m in a hot, cramped room, and though I met some awesome people today, I’m still essentially on my own.
I can only use the internet on the 1 computer here, so I can’t really update my blog, or skype with Jason, or watch Grey’s, or partake in any of the other ridiculous rituals I utilize to feel familiar and comfortable.
But, I will also admit that I’m lucky, in that everyone here is SO nice. Like, you walk down the street and strangers will yell hi to you from 15 feet away, because they want you to feel welcome or something. You walk into a shop, and you’re treated like royalty. If you have a question, people are more than willing to assist you, and they want to know where you’re from, what your parents do for a living and all about your personal history. And, obviously, everyone speaks English. More variables that could have made these past two days absolute hell.
Ok I’m done. But! Oh yeah! I’m also excited for tomorrow because apparently there are 3 Danish people who are also moving into my dorm tomorrow…so maybe I’ll make some more friends from Copenhangen :)
- Josh A
Ps I love Jason
Random Thought: 26
Written on September 12th
Hi again,
I’m all moved into my dorm. It’s…I dunno, not that nice, but this is India, and I’m probably living in a better situation than 85% of the population of this country. And I have air conditioning (IT’S SO FUCKING OPPRESSIVELY HOT HERE), a reliable (so far) outlet to charge my electronics, and my own shower. So, I’m thankful to be here. I am already on day 3 of my Indian excursion, and I’m feeling good. Day 4 will be 1/8 of my time here.
Ugh, I hate that I do that. I did it all through Europe, and I’m doing it again now. I constantly am keeping track of how much time I have left. I did it the entire first 3 weeks of Europe, the last week and a half, I forgot about it because I felt like all the pressure was off. I’m always aware of where I am in my trip. For example, tomorrow I will be 1/8 done with my time in India, 5 weeks total into my total trip, with 5 weeks and 5 days left, which means I am 7/15 done with my entire trip, just about halfway.
Hopefully, I’ll forget about this soon too. And when you think about it, there are a few big landmarks coming up. In a few days, my trip will be officially halfway over, and September will also be halfway over. Then very soon after that, I’ll have only 1 month until I’m home. That should take some of the pressure off. Ugh, I just have nothing to do still, so I keep thinking and thinking and thinking…it’s so annoying.
Essentially, I’m just sitting in my room alone all day. Though I was able to move in, all I did was talk with the program director about my meals during my stay, we talked about my goals, and then he gave me tons of tips and stuff. Now the rest of the evening I just get to sit around. It is nice though, because I’ve been watching Friends like crazy (yay for bringing 3 seasons of Friends, 2 seasons of Alias, 3 seasons of Roswell, and 10 of my favorite movies with me!). I even tried to go out exploring, but it’s a holiday today so all the shops are closed. I would have loved to get online or get some food.
Oh! PS. I have had no appetite at all since I arrived. I think it’s a mixture of the heat, plus the jet lag, plus the stress, but I am never hungry. Jess, Chris and I went out to eat, and I ordered this teeny, tiny pizza, and I only could eat half of it. I also have had indian food twice now, and though in the US, I always treat Indian food like a smorgasbord and just eat my heart out, I could barely finish my plate either time. Today I probably won’t eat anything. Oh well, at least I’ll look good in Bali! Ooh, that’s such a good idea.
On a very bright note, I have learned that the program coordinator, whose name is Krish, is just amazing. He is so helpful, and is so worried about my well-being. He has called me 6 times today, and texted me another 6 times with just random advice, and so many questions as to how I’m feeling, and has made every attempt to make me as comfortable as possible. He promised to go out tomorrow and look for a wireless router for my room, and even though the Danish girls aren’t here yet, he made the doorman promise that when they arrived, he would introduce us. Upon saying goodbye to me, he said something I’ll never forget: “Keep smiling.”
So, I’m gonna try to remember that. And I’m glad to know that I didn’t seem dour.
Oh! One last thing. Since I’m interested in public health, he told me that if I’d like, halfway through my stay, I could move to a hospital in Chennai and volunteer there in another program,. He said the accommodation is probably nicer and there are more volunteers there. I don’t know right now, but if it gets lonely around here, or I just need a change, I’m totally gonna take him up on that.
Ok wait, I lied, another thing. If you don’t know by now, I have shortened my trip. I am now coming home October 23rd. That’s why I’m almost halfway done now. Essentially, I realized that there’s no fucking way I can possibly travel around India all on my own for over a month without going fucking insane and just hating India, travelling, myself and life. It really was a hard decision, because I had to screw over Maggie and I’ll always feel very terrible about it, but it wasn’t that I just didn’t want to travel, it was that I couldn’t. Like, no part of me at all wants to go about doing that...and it's sad, but I know I'll return to India someday. There is so much to see, and I do like it, I just can't wander around aimlessly anymore. If I could volunteer for another month, I probably would, but I can't deal with just more endless travelling for so long. Who knew this would be my mindset now?
Anyway, volunteering, I can do. I recognize that I’m giving up my time and comfort (albeit in an air conditioned room with a private security guard) for others, and I am secure in my placement until I leave the country. Thankfully, Krish also agreed to let me stay 3 days later than I planned to volunteer, which is great because I only paid for 28 days, and I have 3 days between the last day and my flight. Anyway, this is really the most important part of my trip. And I paid $1000 to do it. And I raised $900 to pay for it. So, I can’t give it up.
It did take some tweaking though, like now I’m doing my research project in Chennai, instead of going about the country. You see, my research project is about the Reservations system in India. India has a system called ‘Reservations’, which is like Affirmative Action, but much more so. It’s aimed at women, scheduled tribes and Dalits. In other words, those who used to barely have a shot at getting into college are now reserved a certain percentage of all college admissions. It’s a flawed system, but it is doing good. I plan to speak with university representatives to see how this is actually implemented, and then compare it to the US. I got $3000 to do so, ps.
Originally, I was going to tour about the entire country and interview people from 4 colleges in Delhi, 4 colleges in Mumbai and 4 colleges in Bangalore. Shortly ago, I realized that sounds like a nightmare. So, now I’m just going to visit the 10 or so universities located in Chennai and do the same. As soon as I get my internet connection, I’m gonna get started on that.
ANYWAY, now, after I’m done with my time in india (which will be a total of 32 days, 3 of which are complete), I am flying to see Jackie in Bali for 4 days and 5 nights (and get this: I have THREE flights to ge there. Chennai – Delhi, Delhi-Bangkok, Bangkok – Bali). I was originally going to just stay in Thailand for that time, but then Jackie was like ‘Let’s go to Bali’ and I was like ‘Fuck yeah let’s go to Bali.’
From there, I’m flying to Hanoi for 3 nights and 2 days. And guess what. I’ve decided to live it up. Seriously. I am gonna book 3 nights at the nicest spa and resort in Ha Long Bay (google image it now), and there better be a pool, massages, tours, an awesome restaurant, a driver to pick me up at the airport, and every other amenity possible, because those are the requirements for me to book a room. Anyway, from there, I’m flying back to the US. I’ll be back October 23rd.
And it’ll all be awesome. As long as I keep on smiling.
- Josh A
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Random Thought: 23
Well,
Europe is essentially over. I spent 2 days in Prague, and it wasn’t nearly enough to do it all, which is fine, because I would love to return, and now I’m on my way to Frankfurt. Tomorrow is all about flying. That’s right. I’m finally going to freakin’ India. It’s so weird, but I’m so happy to be done with this backpacking shit for now.
Anyway, my time in Prague was awesome. I was really annoying though, like I ate Subway three times. THREE TIMES. I couldn’t help myself, they had fountain pop WITH ICE. And they even had the same cookies and everything. It was so good. It was also so sad. The same girl was working the counter during two my visits and I know what she was thinking. I also got Starbucks twice…I don’t even get Starbucks in the US. Oh, and both Budapest and Prague are overrun with TGIFridays. Seriously.
On a brighter note though, I somewhat went all out in Prague. I don’t know if you’ve ever backpacked around a continent, but if you have (and if you did it on a budget), then you know what it’s like to usually skimp on stuff. Like, I hardly ever take the guided tour or make the advance reservation for a few extra euros, etc. But, when you make these decisions repeatedly, you tend to not splurge on anything, which is worse than spending too much in the first place! This kind of happened last year with Jason. Anyway, my first morning in Prague, I went to visit the castle, and I was like ‘Ya know what? I’m gonna go all out.’ So I booked the LONG tour of the Castle (which is 3 hours long), with the full audio guide. It cost me $30….and let me tell ya, it was so fucking boring.
Never again. I will never again splurge for splurging’s sake. If it’s nothing something that’s just supposed to be the sweetest freakin thing on the continent, I’m not buying. I was so bored, I literally just skipped like a third of it. Like, oh, there’s stop 31….I’ll just go right to stop 33.
The next day though, I had a much better experience. There’s this organization called New Europe and they offer free (yes, free!) walking tours all over major cities of Europe. And Jerusalem. Prague is actually the only city on my itinerary that they offered tours in, but others include London, Brussels, Berlin, and probably a dozen others. So anyway, the deal is that you just meet at Starbucks, then these people in red tour guide t-shirts pick you up, you go on a THREE HOUR tour of the city, and at the end, you can tip them if you want.
This was pretty much the best tour ever. The tour guide was like, 22 or something and he just moved to Prague for like 4 months to be a tour guide. He does this everyday and lives off tips. Then he’s gonna move to Berlin or something and do it there for 4 months. What a sweet freakin’ life. That’s like flight attendants. I have always maintained that I would love NOTHING more than to be flight attendant! How do airline employees work though? Like ya know how you’ll go to an airport, and say you get in the Air France line, even if you’re in the US, the employees are French. So like, are they flight attendants and then when they’re abroad they work the counter? I dunno but it’s all interesting.
So yeah, back to the tour. Although let me just say this! When waiting for the tour to start at Starbucks, I met this guy from Texas and he was SUCH a DUMBASS. He had the thickest Texas accent you can imagine, and when our tour guide actually complimented him on it, he replied ‘Yeah, well, I’m actually not as smart as those northerners, that’s why I’ve got this accent here.’ What? And then when the guide was trying to round everyone up to go, he was like ‘Move ‘em along little lady!’ or some shit like that. Oh man. He was from Irving, which is where Winston moved from.
So really back to the tour now! It was awesome because I learned so much about the revolution and about what exactly happened the people of the Czech Republic over the last 100 years. It’s so interesting because people always think that like, after Europe was liberated from Hitler, everyone was saved. But really, things were just as bad under Stalin, and the people of the CR were really under a terrifying occupation for like 50 years. We heard all these really, really moving stories too.
Like there was this story about this concentration camp outside Prague. It was FULL of children, and this one woman (also a prisoner) couldn’t stand to see these children just lose their childhood, so ever-so-slowly, she stole art supplies from the concentration camp facilities. In secret, she would give these supplies to the children and tell them to draw or paint what they dreamed about. They drew pictures of their families, they painted pictures of the roads that they’d see when they finally left the camp, etc, and then the woman collected them and all and buried them. There were hundreds of these pictures, and they kept well underground. Sometime in the 50s, they were discovered, and they’re all hanging all over Europe…the majority are in this Synagogue in Prague now. I swear I almost cried when that story was over.
Did you know that Hitler was going to use Prague as a kind of city-museum, after he exterminated the jews? He handpicked it to be somewhere that people could visit to gawk at this extinct race, and learn about their strange ways. All these really significant Jewish memorabilia and artifacts were brought to Prague for this reason. Well, the Jewish community ironically turned this huge collection into an amazing museum. I didn’t get to go there, but if I ever get to go back, it will be first on my list.
Or, oh my god, we also learned about all the brave attempts of the Czech people to earn their freedom. Like when the US was coming to liberate central Europe, the Czechs received word, and just had a massive uprising against the Nazis. They barricaded themselves in buildings and people fought with their everyday housewares, like pots and pans and forks. They didn’t know when the US would be there, but they knew they were on their way…so if they just kept fighting, they would eventually have help and freedom. Only that the US never came. The US/Soviet line of demarcation feel just THREE HOURS from Prague, so the Czechs didn’t have their freedom until 50 years later.
We also heard really amusing stories, like in the 60s, the Czech leader had given a lot of freedoms to the country, that other Soviet satellite states never had. Like he would allow people visas to leave the country, or the right to criticize the government. Well, when the Soviets heard this, they sent in all these tanks to just completely take over the city and implement all these totalitarian policies. But the Czechs had other plans. I don’t remember how, but word got out that the Soviets were on their way. But the Czechs knew that the Soviets wouldn’t know how to find Prague without directions. So, people everywhere went out into the streets and took down every single street sign and direction sign on the highways. They also renamed every town Dubcek, which is the name of their leader at the time. They changed all the railway routes so that they went in complete circles. It took the Soviets like 2 weeks to finally find their way to Prague…although, sadly, this culminated in the CR becoming the second-most hardline country after the USSR itself.
God I could just go on and on with this, but essentially, this tour was just phenomenal, and I tipped the guide 10 euros. I also met these two really cool backpackers named Justin and Edna (lol, yeah, when she told me her name, she was slightly embarrassed), and we spent the rest of the afternoon and evening together. We went to this Museum of Communism, which was SO cool. It was full of all this Anti-American propaganda, and it was organized into three sections: Communism the Dream, Communism the Reality, and Communism the Nightmare. We also watched this 15 minute video that actually showed what it was like during the revolution of 1989. It shows all these police beating protesters and journalists being assaulted for having cameras, it was just amazing. So amazing, I watched it twice.
It’s just so hard to believe that the Berlin Wall was still together before I was born. Like, only twenty years ago, all these countries in Central and Eastern Europe were undergoing some of the saddest and cruelest regimes, and also some of the most important revolutions of our time. I just can’t even imagine what that would be like. I mean, that could been my parents…or my friends’ parents, in all actuality. Perhaps one of the best things about the museum was its location: it was above a casino and behind a McDonalds…lol. I also got some great postcards.
I guess, at the end of it all, I’m just happy and proud that I made it this far. I’m safe, I’m happy, I haven’t lost any kind important document, and though I still have about 24 hours in which something could go wrong, I’m still feeling pretty good about all of it. The next couple of days will probably be pretty stressful, but the mere fact that Europe is now over is such a good feeling.
But I also am sad to leave it all behind. I mean, I feel like I just really mastered the art of making friends, and also being on my own and okay with it. But I guess that’s also a really good note to start India on. Though I’m somewhat nervous to get on a plane for a new destination, I’m mostly looking at it as just a really exciting adventure lol. It’s weird, but there’s something that seems so appealing to just being on a plane after all this.
I mean, with a train or bus, you’re constantly afraid you might miss your stop. Or there’s always the chance that your train is gonna split somewhere along the ride and the first half will go one way while the second half will go the other, and you don’t know if you’re where you need to be. And you can’t sleep, lest some creep steal your shit, etc. None of that is really an issue on a plane. Furthermore, you don’t have to worry about hundreds of crazy drivers the entire journey over.
And, because I have nothing else to write about, here are my European Awards 2010!
Most eye-opening: Sarajevo, Bosnia
Most beautiful location: Dubrovnik, Croatia
Most relaxing: Split, Croatia
Most serene: Lake Bled, Slovenia
Most fun: Budapest, Hungary
Most boring: Banja Luka, Bosnia
Most liveable: Ljubljana, Slovenia
The location I wish I had the most extra time for: Budapest, Hungary
The location I must return to: Prague, Czech Republic
The location I hope all my friends go to: Mostar, Bosnia
K bye,
Josh A
PS the other day, this Czech guy said ‘Goodbyebye’ to me.
OH! And these are some questions I’ll leave you to ponder:
1) Why is everything in Europe paprika-flavored? Doritos would change their lives.
2) Why is it that everytime you ask someone to take a picture of you, they NEVER attempt to use zoom? It doesn’t make sense. Like, yes, my friends and I would LOVE a picture of a huge concrete wall that just happens to include us in a fraction of the frame.
PPS I love you all very much. Especially Jason :)
Europe is essentially over. I spent 2 days in Prague, and it wasn’t nearly enough to do it all, which is fine, because I would love to return, and now I’m on my way to Frankfurt. Tomorrow is all about flying. That’s right. I’m finally going to freakin’ India. It’s so weird, but I’m so happy to be done with this backpacking shit for now.
Anyway, my time in Prague was awesome. I was really annoying though, like I ate Subway three times. THREE TIMES. I couldn’t help myself, they had fountain pop WITH ICE. And they even had the same cookies and everything. It was so good. It was also so sad. The same girl was working the counter during two my visits and I know what she was thinking. I also got Starbucks twice…I don’t even get Starbucks in the US. Oh, and both Budapest and Prague are overrun with TGIFridays. Seriously.
On a brighter note though, I somewhat went all out in Prague. I don’t know if you’ve ever backpacked around a continent, but if you have (and if you did it on a budget), then you know what it’s like to usually skimp on stuff. Like, I hardly ever take the guided tour or make the advance reservation for a few extra euros, etc. But, when you make these decisions repeatedly, you tend to not splurge on anything, which is worse than spending too much in the first place! This kind of happened last year with Jason. Anyway, my first morning in Prague, I went to visit the castle, and I was like ‘Ya know what? I’m gonna go all out.’ So I booked the LONG tour of the Castle (which is 3 hours long), with the full audio guide. It cost me $30….and let me tell ya, it was so fucking boring.
Never again. I will never again splurge for splurging’s sake. If it’s nothing something that’s just supposed to be the sweetest freakin thing on the continent, I’m not buying. I was so bored, I literally just skipped like a third of it. Like, oh, there’s stop 31….I’ll just go right to stop 33.
The next day though, I had a much better experience. There’s this organization called New Europe and they offer free (yes, free!) walking tours all over major cities of Europe. And Jerusalem. Prague is actually the only city on my itinerary that they offered tours in, but others include London, Brussels, Berlin, and probably a dozen others. So anyway, the deal is that you just meet at Starbucks, then these people in red tour guide t-shirts pick you up, you go on a THREE HOUR tour of the city, and at the end, you can tip them if you want.
This was pretty much the best tour ever. The tour guide was like, 22 or something and he just moved to Prague for like 4 months to be a tour guide. He does this everyday and lives off tips. Then he’s gonna move to Berlin or something and do it there for 4 months. What a sweet freakin’ life. That’s like flight attendants. I have always maintained that I would love NOTHING more than to be flight attendant! How do airline employees work though? Like ya know how you’ll go to an airport, and say you get in the Air France line, even if you’re in the US, the employees are French. So like, are they flight attendants and then when they’re abroad they work the counter? I dunno but it’s all interesting.
So yeah, back to the tour. Although let me just say this! When waiting for the tour to start at Starbucks, I met this guy from Texas and he was SUCH a DUMBASS. He had the thickest Texas accent you can imagine, and when our tour guide actually complimented him on it, he replied ‘Yeah, well, I’m actually not as smart as those northerners, that’s why I’ve got this accent here.’ What? And then when the guide was trying to round everyone up to go, he was like ‘Move ‘em along little lady!’ or some shit like that. Oh man. He was from Irving, which is where Winston moved from.
So really back to the tour now! It was awesome because I learned so much about the revolution and about what exactly happened the people of the Czech Republic over the last 100 years. It’s so interesting because people always think that like, after Europe was liberated from Hitler, everyone was saved. But really, things were just as bad under Stalin, and the people of the CR were really under a terrifying occupation for like 50 years. We heard all these really, really moving stories too.
Like there was this story about this concentration camp outside Prague. It was FULL of children, and this one woman (also a prisoner) couldn’t stand to see these children just lose their childhood, so ever-so-slowly, she stole art supplies from the concentration camp facilities. In secret, she would give these supplies to the children and tell them to draw or paint what they dreamed about. They drew pictures of their families, they painted pictures of the roads that they’d see when they finally left the camp, etc, and then the woman collected them and all and buried them. There were hundreds of these pictures, and they kept well underground. Sometime in the 50s, they were discovered, and they’re all hanging all over Europe…the majority are in this Synagogue in Prague now. I swear I almost cried when that story was over.
Did you know that Hitler was going to use Prague as a kind of city-museum, after he exterminated the jews? He handpicked it to be somewhere that people could visit to gawk at this extinct race, and learn about their strange ways. All these really significant Jewish memorabilia and artifacts were brought to Prague for this reason. Well, the Jewish community ironically turned this huge collection into an amazing museum. I didn’t get to go there, but if I ever get to go back, it will be first on my list.
Or, oh my god, we also learned about all the brave attempts of the Czech people to earn their freedom. Like when the US was coming to liberate central Europe, the Czechs received word, and just had a massive uprising against the Nazis. They barricaded themselves in buildings and people fought with their everyday housewares, like pots and pans and forks. They didn’t know when the US would be there, but they knew they were on their way…so if they just kept fighting, they would eventually have help and freedom. Only that the US never came. The US/Soviet line of demarcation feel just THREE HOURS from Prague, so the Czechs didn’t have their freedom until 50 years later.
We also heard really amusing stories, like in the 60s, the Czech leader had given a lot of freedoms to the country, that other Soviet satellite states never had. Like he would allow people visas to leave the country, or the right to criticize the government. Well, when the Soviets heard this, they sent in all these tanks to just completely take over the city and implement all these totalitarian policies. But the Czechs had other plans. I don’t remember how, but word got out that the Soviets were on their way. But the Czechs knew that the Soviets wouldn’t know how to find Prague without directions. So, people everywhere went out into the streets and took down every single street sign and direction sign on the highways. They also renamed every town Dubcek, which is the name of their leader at the time. They changed all the railway routes so that they went in complete circles. It took the Soviets like 2 weeks to finally find their way to Prague…although, sadly, this culminated in the CR becoming the second-most hardline country after the USSR itself.
God I could just go on and on with this, but essentially, this tour was just phenomenal, and I tipped the guide 10 euros. I also met these two really cool backpackers named Justin and Edna (lol, yeah, when she told me her name, she was slightly embarrassed), and we spent the rest of the afternoon and evening together. We went to this Museum of Communism, which was SO cool. It was full of all this Anti-American propaganda, and it was organized into three sections: Communism the Dream, Communism the Reality, and Communism the Nightmare. We also watched this 15 minute video that actually showed what it was like during the revolution of 1989. It shows all these police beating protesters and journalists being assaulted for having cameras, it was just amazing. So amazing, I watched it twice.
It’s just so hard to believe that the Berlin Wall was still together before I was born. Like, only twenty years ago, all these countries in Central and Eastern Europe were undergoing some of the saddest and cruelest regimes, and also some of the most important revolutions of our time. I just can’t even imagine what that would be like. I mean, that could been my parents…or my friends’ parents, in all actuality. Perhaps one of the best things about the museum was its location: it was above a casino and behind a McDonalds…lol. I also got some great postcards.
I guess, at the end of it all, I’m just happy and proud that I made it this far. I’m safe, I’m happy, I haven’t lost any kind important document, and though I still have about 24 hours in which something could go wrong, I’m still feeling pretty good about all of it. The next couple of days will probably be pretty stressful, but the mere fact that Europe is now over is such a good feeling.
But I also am sad to leave it all behind. I mean, I feel like I just really mastered the art of making friends, and also being on my own and okay with it. But I guess that’s also a really good note to start India on. Though I’m somewhat nervous to get on a plane for a new destination, I’m mostly looking at it as just a really exciting adventure lol. It’s weird, but there’s something that seems so appealing to just being on a plane after all this.
I mean, with a train or bus, you’re constantly afraid you might miss your stop. Or there’s always the chance that your train is gonna split somewhere along the ride and the first half will go one way while the second half will go the other, and you don’t know if you’re where you need to be. And you can’t sleep, lest some creep steal your shit, etc. None of that is really an issue on a plane. Furthermore, you don’t have to worry about hundreds of crazy drivers the entire journey over.
And, because I have nothing else to write about, here are my European Awards 2010!
Most eye-opening: Sarajevo, Bosnia
Most beautiful location: Dubrovnik, Croatia
Most relaxing: Split, Croatia
Most serene: Lake Bled, Slovenia
Most fun: Budapest, Hungary
Most boring: Banja Luka, Bosnia
Most liveable: Ljubljana, Slovenia
The location I wish I had the most extra time for: Budapest, Hungary
The location I must return to: Prague, Czech Republic
The location I hope all my friends go to: Mostar, Bosnia
K bye,
Josh A
PS the other day, this Czech guy said ‘Goodbyebye’ to me.
OH! And these are some questions I’ll leave you to ponder:
1) Why is everything in Europe paprika-flavored? Doritos would change their lives.
2) Why is it that everytime you ask someone to take a picture of you, they NEVER attempt to use zoom? It doesn’t make sense. Like, yes, my friends and I would LOVE a picture of a huge concrete wall that just happens to include us in a fraction of the frame.
PPS I love you all very much. Especially Jason :)
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Random Thought: 22
So,
The following is a summary of my time in Budapest.
I arrived in Budapest 2 evenings ago. I came on a SIX HOUR train from Zagreb, and I shared a carriage with these 5 Brits. They were pretty cool and taught me how to play Hearts (which I’m kind of good at), and we talked about the War in Iraq and they taught me about health care and education in the UK. PS did you know that in the UK, you just study ‘medicine’ as an undergrad? I don’t get it. They tried explaining it to me but it didn’t make any sense. You’re just admitted out of high school, I guess. It was just hard taking them seriously because even in the US, 90% of the time I meet someone who’s pre-med, I’m like ok right. Next time I see you, you’ll be English. Anyway, so I get to Budapest and I eat McDonalds and find my hostel. The hostel is literally a huge apartment. Like, someone bought this awesome loft, put a bunch of bunk beds in it, and bam. Hostel. But it’s awesome so shut up.
Upon arrival, the first thing I saw was a man in the kitchen to my left, cooking and wearing nothing but pink boxers, and his ass-crack in plain view. He looked just like Sayid Jarrah. I checked in and soon came into contact with Tyler Baird. Or really, a Tyler Baird facsimile. This was so strange because I had just thought of Tyler and decided to send him a postcard. I met new Tyler and literally, he started talking to me and it was as though the Lord was like ‘You miss Tyler? Well here ya go!’ Further proof that someone’s looking out for me on this trip. Have I told you about this feeling yet?
Essentially, everything that could have gone right so far has. I haven’t missed a single train, or got lost, or gotten mugged or bought the wrong tram ticket or anything like that. It just really feels as though someone is watching out for me. As corny as it sounds, it’s comforting. Knock on wood.
Anyway, Tyler and I start talking and he’s from Canada and he’s cool and whatever, and then someone comes in and they’re like ‘There’s a big supper out here if you guys want some.’ So, in accordance with my new attitude about always being social, I have to oblige him. So I go into the kitchen and the half-naked middle eastern man was apparently cooking a FIVE COURSE MEAL for all the guests at this hostel. And he’s Egyptian.
So the meal consisted of lentil soup, roast chicken, French fries, an Egyptian salad, and then desert. It was all laid out in high-class restaurant style with tea lights and everything. I had actually already eaten at McDonalds b/c I’m pathetic, but like I said, I had to be social. So I ate anyway. The food was sweet but the social experience was lacking. Everyone there was British and they all were British together with their weird British humor and this one girl tried to convince me that the British office is better than the American Office and I was just done. Then the Egyptian guy started getting really weird. He started trying to make everyone eat more and more and more even though everyone was full, because we’re normal. Then he started eating chicken legs whole, including the bone. And when someone was eating their chicken with a fork, he’d demand to know why they didn’t use their fingers. Then it got kind of hairy. I’m always interested in dining etiquette around the world, so the following transpired:
J: Is it common to use your hands to eat in Egypt?
SJ: Man, we use the same things you do. We have forks, knives, all the same.
J: No, I mean like in the US, we all use hands for lots of stuff. Pizza, sandwiches, etc. In Europe, people use a fork and knife for everything.
SJ: What?! Fork and knife for pizza! Well in Egypt, we do have restuarants man. It’s just like you. If you go out to eat, you use fork and knife. If you stay in, you use hands. But we have all the same. Everything. Spoons, silverware, everything.
What a bunch of stupid shit. He’s like offended and didn’t get what I was saying, so I just dropped it. Everyone was weirded out by him and it was obvious that everyone kind of wanted to go, but we had to stay because there was so much food left, not only on the table but on our plates. Then it was time for desert. Let’s just say…it was constantly surprising.
Imagine a huge ice cream sundae that you can split with 4 people…including whipped cream, chocolate sprinkles, chocolate syrup, and raspberries. Sounds appetizing right? That’s what we see the Egyptian man preparing. He brings it over, and says ‘Who’s first?’ and we all just look at each other like holy shit. He’s making a HUGE sundae for each one of us individually. Once we look closer, we realize that it is a Sundae…but there’s no ice cream. Instead of ice cream, it’s cous cous. Yeah. Apparently, this is common in Egypt. And all cous cous are sweet. So, we’re all so full we’re about to vomit, but we each get this huge cous cous sundae.
All of a sudden, Egyptian guy is gone. No one knows where he went, or why, or if he’s coming back. So we all take this opportunity to scrape the 75% of the sundaes we didn’t eat into the garbage and do all the dishes. There’s only one sink so we all end up taking dishes into the bathrooms and it’s all stupid and funny. I stuck around in case Sayid came back, because I really wanted to say thank you, but he never did.
The next morning, Tyler and I get up and decide to go to the Terror House. This is a house that used to be the headquarters of the Nazi Party in Hungary, and then the Soviet KGB. It was then known as the ‘House of Loyalty.’ Hundreds or even thousands of political prisoners were brought here to be questioned or executed. To put it simply, a lot of really fucked up, terrifying things happened here. We learned all about the Stalinist regime and the Nazis and saw a bunch of uniforms and propaganda and it was so sad, because we even toured these cells where people were tortured, murdered, etc.
It was very much what I imagine visiting Auschwitz or another concentration camp is like. Some of the exhibits were just unreal, like there was a video of all these women prisoners (survivors) who got to come face to face with prison guard, another woman, and confront her with all that she had done to them. It was like The Reader kind of, but for real. These women were just like ‘You were so sadistic. How could you do this to us?’ and she just kept replying that she was under orders. There was this beautiful room called the Hall of Tears, which not only included a list of all the known victims, but also a list of all the known victimizers…and it had their date of birth and date of death. Some of them are still alive. Who knows what they’re doing now? It didn’t say whether they were in jail or just living in Russia.
Anyway, halfway through, I run into the people from the train.
This is like the third time something like this has happened on my trip, and it’s just ridiculous how small of a place Europe is. So Tyler Baird and I join the Brits and one of them has just turned into such an asshole. He’s flirting with all these slutty girls and he even scares one of them through this hole in a cell where dozens of people probably cried their eyes out or yelled for help in their last hours, and then all of a sudden he’s like ‘Well what’s your last name mate? I’ll add you on facebook.’ He hasn’t yet. Probably because he’s an asshole.
This apparently isn’t even uncommon. I have talked with two different people now who have been to Auschwitz and it seems there are always people there just talking and joking and being loud like they’re at fucking Sonic or something. I hate people. Anyway, I was glad to leave the Terror House so I could get away from British George who’s apparently going to be a doctor, but I’m so glad I went. It was probably the best museum I’ve ever been to, and it was so wonderful to actually bear witness to something that has happened here. I didn’t make it to Poland or Germany really, so this was really the only monument to the Soviet or Nazi occupation I’ve seen throughout this trip. And I of course learned a lot and it was all very moving. And I got 2 postcards for Jason.
So then Tyler and I decide to go to a thermal bath. Budapest is full of hot springs and there are like 20 baths around town. We go to the Gellert baths, which are supposed to be the best one, and it’s AWESOME. It’s like, swimming in a huge cathedral. There are 4 pools of varying temperature, and they even had a wave pool that put Lost Island to shame. These waves were like water on fucking steroids. They kicked our ass with every splash. So, that was a great day.
Of course, while walking around these various sites, I bought some postcards. However, they’re still all sitting in my bag and probably will be for a few more days because everywhere I go, I am told something different about postage. Did I tell you about Croatia?? Well, these stupid Croats who sold me stamps didn’t tell me that I needed two stamps on every card to send it to the US, so now all my Croatian postcards are just sitting in postcard limbo and I’m still mad about it. So, I’m not sending anything else until I’m sure where they’re going.
It started at this shop we went to where I got some gifts for loved ones. I bought 2 post cards, and they were like ‘You want stamps?’ and I’m like ‘Yes, please! Can I have 10 to the USA please?’ and they’re like ‘We can only sell you 2.’ Because I bought 2 postcards. Who know the Hungarians were so greedy? Stupid capitalism. So they sell me one for each card I bought and each is worth like 200 Forint or something.
Though this was annoying, at least I know this isn’t like Bosnia where stamps are only sold at post offices. So next, Tyler and I go into this huge church, and the first thing I do is head to the gift shop. ‘Do you have stamps to the USA?’ I ask. They say yes, and they’re not greedy bitches, so they’ll give me as many as I’d like. However, they give me ones that are worth 400 Forint. So I’m like ‘Do I only need one stamp for each card?’ and they say ‘Yes. One stamp. One card. To the US.’
Ok. So I look at Tyler, and he shows me HIS postcards and stamps that he bought, and his cost 500 a piece. We’re totally confused now. It’s like, what the hell? How much do stamps cost and how many do I need dammit? So I spent the evening going about asking every possible person I can find if they know how much a stamp to the US costs, and no one knows or gives me a straight answer. And the post offices aren’t open until Monday, though I’m leaving Sunday. Whatever, my Budapest cards will just have Czech stamps. Multiculturalism!
Anyway today, a bunch of kids who totally look like they could be 14 or 15 check in. Then I come to find that they also act this age. They were all from the UK too, ‘on holiday’ of course. Tyler and I just can’t get over it, because there are only like 10 beds in our hostel and 4 of them are probably underage. So at about noon Tyler and I head out for another day.
We spent a great deal of time in these underground Labrynths. It was so cool at first, because I have never even really been to a cave before, and we were just wandering around aimlessly, and all of the books we had read said that it’s really easy to get lost.
We entered the labrynth, and we see all of these old cave paintings. Like, the stuff you see on National Geographic and the History Channel, so it’s really cool. Then we see all these old stone carvings and statues and it’s like this is awesome! Then we see something called: Labrynth of Another World. So we’re like, uh sign us the fuck up! We go in and apparently like 40 years ago, they were excavating these caves and found a foot print. It was carbon dated to the Eocene era…but the print didn’t match up with any Homo Sapien forebearer known to anthropologists. So everyone thinks it might like an alien or something. I’m like, ok this is just sweet. But then we think we see said foot print…and it’s literally a nike shoe print.
Is this a joke? We can’t figure it out. It’s literally this NIKE FOOTPRINT FOSSILZED in stone, with chains all around it so no one can touch it. Is this the alien print or another? We don’t know, but we keep going. We then find fossils of computer screens…and ….coca cola bottles. I know. We don’t get it. Soon, we learn that this whole place is a like, a stupid shrine to post-materialism or something. And these caves used to be a bunker during WWII, so they just fosslied a bunch of stuff that’s been here ever since, like microphones and chairs and shit. And so when really think about it, we can’t even tell if the cave paintings are real. Are the statues just imports? We don’t know and are kind of getting fed up because these caves went from being way cool to semi-stupid. Furthermore, we keep ending up at the entrance, so it’s really not huge at all. It’s actually quite small. Oh, and all around the place are all these people dressed up in period outfits. Like, there are these guys dressed up as monks walking around with bibles and these renaissance women sewing and carrying grains and shit, I don’t really know why.
All of a sudden, I walk past this guy in a GRIM REAPER COSTUME. Seriously. These caves are barely navigable in some parts because it’s so dark and this guy is just creeping around in a black Halloween cape thing and a white mask. I actually think he was just standing there to scare people. Or kill them. Regardless, I was really happy to be with Tyler b/c he’s like 6 foot 4 and I know that no one’s gonna fuck around with us.
So then I see another of those monk guys, and by now they’re just cracking me up, b/c they’re all like 16 years old and they’re totally not monks, and they look totally bored, and they remind me of like, the people who have to dress up as Donald Duck at Disneyworld or something ya know? So I unexpectedly make eye contact with this one monk….and he sees me kind of laughing….and he TOTALLY cracks up. Like, he knows what I’m thinking and he’s just like ‘yeah…my job sucks.’
So that was the highlight of my trip thus far. Tyler and I are totally ready to get out of here by now though, and even though we had found the entrance like 4 times, we now couldn’t find our way around. We ask one of the lovely maidens for help, and bam, the same monk is there. He comes up to us because he’s obviously bored and we’re having a semi-conversation, and so I have to take this opportunity to talk to him. It was so great. He didn’t speak much English, but this was the best part:
J: So…do you like this job?
M: Yeah…it’s…really funny.
So good. I love that people here also have really shitty jobs that they just have to deal with. Like Burger King employees here. Oh man. I don’t ever go to Burger King in the US, so I don’t know what it’s like there, but people here have to wear these TERRIBLE shirts and even MATCHING PANTS and I’ve been to a Burger King twice now (shut up), but both times, all I can think about is how I feel so bad for these poor employees. But at the same time, it’s so funny, because I have totally been there with Subway, and my stupid fucking summer camp shirt that I’ll never wear again, and the River Room, and it’s just so good.
Then we go back to the hostel, and the Egyptian guy has now apparently kidnapped 3 of the 4 fourteen year olds and he’s making them all watch these youtube videos of Hungarian Breakdancers on this flat screen monitor in his room. One of the kids is in our room and says to ‘Can you think of an excuse for me to get my friends back from the Egyptian guy? They have at least twenty minutes of breakdancing left and I need to rescue them.’ I didn’t have any ideas. About 15 minutes later, they all came in to the room again (followed by Sayid), obviously feigning sleepiness. It was actually really great. They were all like
‘I am sooo tired.’
‘I know!!! I can barely keep my eyes open…’
‘Yeah…I need to lay down.’
So anyway, I’m leaving for India in 5 days and I’m excited. I think I really did a good thing by doing Europe first. I wasn’t nervous about going to Europe at all, since I had already been here and it’s so easy to get around. I was just sad to leave Jason and my home behind. Now, I’m somewhat nervous about going to India, but I’m not sad about leaving anything behind. I’m actually happy to just be moving right along with this trip!
Seriously. Travelling for so long has really taken a toll on me. I am so ready to just settle down somewhere and stay there. I wanna unpack my shit, relax, and just have a daily routine. In other words, I’m very much looking forward to going to India. It’s also nice because someone’s picking me up at the airport and I don’t have to just wander around almost aimlessly anymore. I can’t even put into words how surreal it was to arrive in Frankfurt a month ago…and just feel like I had the entire world in front of me and I was totally clueless as to how to navigate it. Thankfully, I won’t feel that much pressure again anytime on my trip.
Knock on wood.
On another note, I don’t really know how my blog will be affected by my transition to India. I mean, I won’t be going around from place to place almost daily anymore. Instead, I’ll be stationary and busy. But, I won’t leave you guys hanging, so don’t worry :) And Tyler’s name is really Tristan.
- Josh A
PS has anyone seen all the Sassy Gay Friend vids?? So funny. If not, follow please!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnvgq8STMGM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQhkzYVlLl8&feature=channel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKttq6EUqbE&feature=channel
Oh, and this :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6n1rnMKlcc&feature=related
PPS – I talked with this girl who had just gotten back from Berlin, and apparently, the site where Hitler killed himself is now a parking lot. Germany doesn’t want to glorify his memory or anything though, so it’s not marked or toured or anything, but if you ask around, you can easily find it. Apparently, the locals use it as a place for their dogs to take a shit.
The following is a summary of my time in Budapest.
I arrived in Budapest 2 evenings ago. I came on a SIX HOUR train from Zagreb, and I shared a carriage with these 5 Brits. They were pretty cool and taught me how to play Hearts (which I’m kind of good at), and we talked about the War in Iraq and they taught me about health care and education in the UK. PS did you know that in the UK, you just study ‘medicine’ as an undergrad? I don’t get it. They tried explaining it to me but it didn’t make any sense. You’re just admitted out of high school, I guess. It was just hard taking them seriously because even in the US, 90% of the time I meet someone who’s pre-med, I’m like ok right. Next time I see you, you’ll be English. Anyway, so I get to Budapest and I eat McDonalds and find my hostel. The hostel is literally a huge apartment. Like, someone bought this awesome loft, put a bunch of bunk beds in it, and bam. Hostel. But it’s awesome so shut up.
Upon arrival, the first thing I saw was a man in the kitchen to my left, cooking and wearing nothing but pink boxers, and his ass-crack in plain view. He looked just like Sayid Jarrah. I checked in and soon came into contact with Tyler Baird. Or really, a Tyler Baird facsimile. This was so strange because I had just thought of Tyler and decided to send him a postcard. I met new Tyler and literally, he started talking to me and it was as though the Lord was like ‘You miss Tyler? Well here ya go!’ Further proof that someone’s looking out for me on this trip. Have I told you about this feeling yet?
Essentially, everything that could have gone right so far has. I haven’t missed a single train, or got lost, or gotten mugged or bought the wrong tram ticket or anything like that. It just really feels as though someone is watching out for me. As corny as it sounds, it’s comforting. Knock on wood.
Anyway, Tyler and I start talking and he’s from Canada and he’s cool and whatever, and then someone comes in and they’re like ‘There’s a big supper out here if you guys want some.’ So, in accordance with my new attitude about always being social, I have to oblige him. So I go into the kitchen and the half-naked middle eastern man was apparently cooking a FIVE COURSE MEAL for all the guests at this hostel. And he’s Egyptian.
So the meal consisted of lentil soup, roast chicken, French fries, an Egyptian salad, and then desert. It was all laid out in high-class restaurant style with tea lights and everything. I had actually already eaten at McDonalds b/c I’m pathetic, but like I said, I had to be social. So I ate anyway. The food was sweet but the social experience was lacking. Everyone there was British and they all were British together with their weird British humor and this one girl tried to convince me that the British office is better than the American Office and I was just done. Then the Egyptian guy started getting really weird. He started trying to make everyone eat more and more and more even though everyone was full, because we’re normal. Then he started eating chicken legs whole, including the bone. And when someone was eating their chicken with a fork, he’d demand to know why they didn’t use their fingers. Then it got kind of hairy. I’m always interested in dining etiquette around the world, so the following transpired:
J: Is it common to use your hands to eat in Egypt?
SJ: Man, we use the same things you do. We have forks, knives, all the same.
J: No, I mean like in the US, we all use hands for lots of stuff. Pizza, sandwiches, etc. In Europe, people use a fork and knife for everything.
SJ: What?! Fork and knife for pizza! Well in Egypt, we do have restuarants man. It’s just like you. If you go out to eat, you use fork and knife. If you stay in, you use hands. But we have all the same. Everything. Spoons, silverware, everything.
What a bunch of stupid shit. He’s like offended and didn’t get what I was saying, so I just dropped it. Everyone was weirded out by him and it was obvious that everyone kind of wanted to go, but we had to stay because there was so much food left, not only on the table but on our plates. Then it was time for desert. Let’s just say…it was constantly surprising.
Imagine a huge ice cream sundae that you can split with 4 people…including whipped cream, chocolate sprinkles, chocolate syrup, and raspberries. Sounds appetizing right? That’s what we see the Egyptian man preparing. He brings it over, and says ‘Who’s first?’ and we all just look at each other like holy shit. He’s making a HUGE sundae for each one of us individually. Once we look closer, we realize that it is a Sundae…but there’s no ice cream. Instead of ice cream, it’s cous cous. Yeah. Apparently, this is common in Egypt. And all cous cous are sweet. So, we’re all so full we’re about to vomit, but we each get this huge cous cous sundae.
All of a sudden, Egyptian guy is gone. No one knows where he went, or why, or if he’s coming back. So we all take this opportunity to scrape the 75% of the sundaes we didn’t eat into the garbage and do all the dishes. There’s only one sink so we all end up taking dishes into the bathrooms and it’s all stupid and funny. I stuck around in case Sayid came back, because I really wanted to say thank you, but he never did.
The next morning, Tyler and I get up and decide to go to the Terror House. This is a house that used to be the headquarters of the Nazi Party in Hungary, and then the Soviet KGB. It was then known as the ‘House of Loyalty.’ Hundreds or even thousands of political prisoners were brought here to be questioned or executed. To put it simply, a lot of really fucked up, terrifying things happened here. We learned all about the Stalinist regime and the Nazis and saw a bunch of uniforms and propaganda and it was so sad, because we even toured these cells where people were tortured, murdered, etc.
It was very much what I imagine visiting Auschwitz or another concentration camp is like. Some of the exhibits were just unreal, like there was a video of all these women prisoners (survivors) who got to come face to face with prison guard, another woman, and confront her with all that she had done to them. It was like The Reader kind of, but for real. These women were just like ‘You were so sadistic. How could you do this to us?’ and she just kept replying that she was under orders. There was this beautiful room called the Hall of Tears, which not only included a list of all the known victims, but also a list of all the known victimizers…and it had their date of birth and date of death. Some of them are still alive. Who knows what they’re doing now? It didn’t say whether they were in jail or just living in Russia.
Anyway, halfway through, I run into the people from the train.
This is like the third time something like this has happened on my trip, and it’s just ridiculous how small of a place Europe is. So Tyler Baird and I join the Brits and one of them has just turned into such an asshole. He’s flirting with all these slutty girls and he even scares one of them through this hole in a cell where dozens of people probably cried their eyes out or yelled for help in their last hours, and then all of a sudden he’s like ‘Well what’s your last name mate? I’ll add you on facebook.’ He hasn’t yet. Probably because he’s an asshole.
This apparently isn’t even uncommon. I have talked with two different people now who have been to Auschwitz and it seems there are always people there just talking and joking and being loud like they’re at fucking Sonic or something. I hate people. Anyway, I was glad to leave the Terror House so I could get away from British George who’s apparently going to be a doctor, but I’m so glad I went. It was probably the best museum I’ve ever been to, and it was so wonderful to actually bear witness to something that has happened here. I didn’t make it to Poland or Germany really, so this was really the only monument to the Soviet or Nazi occupation I’ve seen throughout this trip. And I of course learned a lot and it was all very moving. And I got 2 postcards for Jason.
So then Tyler and I decide to go to a thermal bath. Budapest is full of hot springs and there are like 20 baths around town. We go to the Gellert baths, which are supposed to be the best one, and it’s AWESOME. It’s like, swimming in a huge cathedral. There are 4 pools of varying temperature, and they even had a wave pool that put Lost Island to shame. These waves were like water on fucking steroids. They kicked our ass with every splash. So, that was a great day.
Of course, while walking around these various sites, I bought some postcards. However, they’re still all sitting in my bag and probably will be for a few more days because everywhere I go, I am told something different about postage. Did I tell you about Croatia?? Well, these stupid Croats who sold me stamps didn’t tell me that I needed two stamps on every card to send it to the US, so now all my Croatian postcards are just sitting in postcard limbo and I’m still mad about it. So, I’m not sending anything else until I’m sure where they’re going.
It started at this shop we went to where I got some gifts for loved ones. I bought 2 post cards, and they were like ‘You want stamps?’ and I’m like ‘Yes, please! Can I have 10 to the USA please?’ and they’re like ‘We can only sell you 2.’ Because I bought 2 postcards. Who know the Hungarians were so greedy? Stupid capitalism. So they sell me one for each card I bought and each is worth like 200 Forint or something.
Though this was annoying, at least I know this isn’t like Bosnia where stamps are only sold at post offices. So next, Tyler and I go into this huge church, and the first thing I do is head to the gift shop. ‘Do you have stamps to the USA?’ I ask. They say yes, and they’re not greedy bitches, so they’ll give me as many as I’d like. However, they give me ones that are worth 400 Forint. So I’m like ‘Do I only need one stamp for each card?’ and they say ‘Yes. One stamp. One card. To the US.’
Ok. So I look at Tyler, and he shows me HIS postcards and stamps that he bought, and his cost 500 a piece. We’re totally confused now. It’s like, what the hell? How much do stamps cost and how many do I need dammit? So I spent the evening going about asking every possible person I can find if they know how much a stamp to the US costs, and no one knows or gives me a straight answer. And the post offices aren’t open until Monday, though I’m leaving Sunday. Whatever, my Budapest cards will just have Czech stamps. Multiculturalism!
Anyway today, a bunch of kids who totally look like they could be 14 or 15 check in. Then I come to find that they also act this age. They were all from the UK too, ‘on holiday’ of course. Tyler and I just can’t get over it, because there are only like 10 beds in our hostel and 4 of them are probably underage. So at about noon Tyler and I head out for another day.
We spent a great deal of time in these underground Labrynths. It was so cool at first, because I have never even really been to a cave before, and we were just wandering around aimlessly, and all of the books we had read said that it’s really easy to get lost.
We entered the labrynth, and we see all of these old cave paintings. Like, the stuff you see on National Geographic and the History Channel, so it’s really cool. Then we see all these old stone carvings and statues and it’s like this is awesome! Then we see something called: Labrynth of Another World. So we’re like, uh sign us the fuck up! We go in and apparently like 40 years ago, they were excavating these caves and found a foot print. It was carbon dated to the Eocene era…but the print didn’t match up with any Homo Sapien forebearer known to anthropologists. So everyone thinks it might like an alien or something. I’m like, ok this is just sweet. But then we think we see said foot print…and it’s literally a nike shoe print.
Is this a joke? We can’t figure it out. It’s literally this NIKE FOOTPRINT FOSSILZED in stone, with chains all around it so no one can touch it. Is this the alien print or another? We don’t know, but we keep going. We then find fossils of computer screens…and ….coca cola bottles. I know. We don’t get it. Soon, we learn that this whole place is a like, a stupid shrine to post-materialism or something. And these caves used to be a bunker during WWII, so they just fosslied a bunch of stuff that’s been here ever since, like microphones and chairs and shit. And so when really think about it, we can’t even tell if the cave paintings are real. Are the statues just imports? We don’t know and are kind of getting fed up because these caves went from being way cool to semi-stupid. Furthermore, we keep ending up at the entrance, so it’s really not huge at all. It’s actually quite small. Oh, and all around the place are all these people dressed up in period outfits. Like, there are these guys dressed up as monks walking around with bibles and these renaissance women sewing and carrying grains and shit, I don’t really know why.
All of a sudden, I walk past this guy in a GRIM REAPER COSTUME. Seriously. These caves are barely navigable in some parts because it’s so dark and this guy is just creeping around in a black Halloween cape thing and a white mask. I actually think he was just standing there to scare people. Or kill them. Regardless, I was really happy to be with Tyler b/c he’s like 6 foot 4 and I know that no one’s gonna fuck around with us.
So then I see another of those monk guys, and by now they’re just cracking me up, b/c they’re all like 16 years old and they’re totally not monks, and they look totally bored, and they remind me of like, the people who have to dress up as Donald Duck at Disneyworld or something ya know? So I unexpectedly make eye contact with this one monk….and he sees me kind of laughing….and he TOTALLY cracks up. Like, he knows what I’m thinking and he’s just like ‘yeah…my job sucks.’
So that was the highlight of my trip thus far. Tyler and I are totally ready to get out of here by now though, and even though we had found the entrance like 4 times, we now couldn’t find our way around. We ask one of the lovely maidens for help, and bam, the same monk is there. He comes up to us because he’s obviously bored and we’re having a semi-conversation, and so I have to take this opportunity to talk to him. It was so great. He didn’t speak much English, but this was the best part:
J: So…do you like this job?
M: Yeah…it’s…really funny.
So good. I love that people here also have really shitty jobs that they just have to deal with. Like Burger King employees here. Oh man. I don’t ever go to Burger King in the US, so I don’t know what it’s like there, but people here have to wear these TERRIBLE shirts and even MATCHING PANTS and I’ve been to a Burger King twice now (shut up), but both times, all I can think about is how I feel so bad for these poor employees. But at the same time, it’s so funny, because I have totally been there with Subway, and my stupid fucking summer camp shirt that I’ll never wear again, and the River Room, and it’s just so good.
Then we go back to the hostel, and the Egyptian guy has now apparently kidnapped 3 of the 4 fourteen year olds and he’s making them all watch these youtube videos of Hungarian Breakdancers on this flat screen monitor in his room. One of the kids is in our room and says to ‘Can you think of an excuse for me to get my friends back from the Egyptian guy? They have at least twenty minutes of breakdancing left and I need to rescue them.’ I didn’t have any ideas. About 15 minutes later, they all came in to the room again (followed by Sayid), obviously feigning sleepiness. It was actually really great. They were all like
‘I am sooo tired.’
‘I know!!! I can barely keep my eyes open…’
‘Yeah…I need to lay down.’
So anyway, I’m leaving for India in 5 days and I’m excited. I think I really did a good thing by doing Europe first. I wasn’t nervous about going to Europe at all, since I had already been here and it’s so easy to get around. I was just sad to leave Jason and my home behind. Now, I’m somewhat nervous about going to India, but I’m not sad about leaving anything behind. I’m actually happy to just be moving right along with this trip!
Seriously. Travelling for so long has really taken a toll on me. I am so ready to just settle down somewhere and stay there. I wanna unpack my shit, relax, and just have a daily routine. In other words, I’m very much looking forward to going to India. It’s also nice because someone’s picking me up at the airport and I don’t have to just wander around almost aimlessly anymore. I can’t even put into words how surreal it was to arrive in Frankfurt a month ago…and just feel like I had the entire world in front of me and I was totally clueless as to how to navigate it. Thankfully, I won’t feel that much pressure again anytime on my trip.
Knock on wood.
On another note, I don’t really know how my blog will be affected by my transition to India. I mean, I won’t be going around from place to place almost daily anymore. Instead, I’ll be stationary and busy. But, I won’t leave you guys hanging, so don’t worry :) And Tyler’s name is really Tristan.
- Josh A
PS has anyone seen all the Sassy Gay Friend vids?? So funny. If not, follow please!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnvgq8STMGM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQhkzYVlLl8&feature=channel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKttq6EUqbE&feature=channel
Oh, and this :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6n1rnMKlcc&feature=related
PPS – I talked with this girl who had just gotten back from Berlin, and apparently, the site where Hitler killed himself is now a parking lot. Germany doesn’t want to glorify his memory or anything though, so it’s not marked or toured or anything, but if you ask around, you can easily find it. Apparently, the locals use it as a place for their dogs to take a shit.
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Random Thought: 21
Hi,
I have 5 days left in Europe…it’s amazing how time flies. I’m currently in Hungary (!!), checking out Budapest, but I only had 2 days to do so. It’s sad, because I feel like I’m in Paris or Rome again. Like, there’s no possible way I could ever see everything that would be truly awesome, and at least in Paris I had 4 days. I ONLY HAD TWOOOO. It’s so sad. But, this was my own fault. I felt the need to stay a little longer with my girls, and I don’t regret that decision at all, because I got to share some really great time with them. And at night, instead of going out and actually doing stuff … we watched the entire first season of Alias on my netbook. Ha!
But really, they were great, and I’m gonna miss them so much.
Though at the same time, it’s nice to be on my own again. I mean, that’s what I came here to do. I came to see the world and be independent, and though we had a ton of fun and I saw and did a ton of things I wouldn’t have seen on my own, it felt like a good time to leave them. After all, they came on their trip together, and though they invited me along for the entire ride, they deserved to have some time for their own at the end of their journey. I only had one week left, and it was the perfect amount of time to see (some of) both Prague and Budapest.
Anyway, on the train here, I shared a carriage with 4 other backpackers, all from the UK, and it was really fun. I know how to play Hearts now. And I’m kind of good at it. Anyway, on this SIX HOUR train, I had a few moments of pure ecstasy and clarity. Just…these moments where I’m so aware of the fact that I’m having such a good time here and that everything is awesome and amazing and that I’m becoming a global citizen and I’m not even halfway done with my journey yet.
I’ve been having these moments a lot lately, and it’s like, impossible to adequately describe them. Time is going by faster with each day, and it’s kind of sad, but I know it’s a good thing…because time flies when you’re having fun. And it wouldn’t be flying if I was stressed or not enjoying my time here. But anyway, in a matter of days I will be on my way to a developing country, and one in particular that is at the crossroads of many different global issues and tensions...that I've wanted to visit for years now...and I’m very much excited...and then after that, it’s gonna be paradise even farther east!
Yay for life.
- Josh A
Oh, and PS, I really really want to start reading a new book. Anyone have any suggestions?
I have 5 days left in Europe…it’s amazing how time flies. I’m currently in Hungary (!!), checking out Budapest, but I only had 2 days to do so. It’s sad, because I feel like I’m in Paris or Rome again. Like, there’s no possible way I could ever see everything that would be truly awesome, and at least in Paris I had 4 days. I ONLY HAD TWOOOO. It’s so sad. But, this was my own fault. I felt the need to stay a little longer with my girls, and I don’t regret that decision at all, because I got to share some really great time with them. And at night, instead of going out and actually doing stuff … we watched the entire first season of Alias on my netbook. Ha!
But really, they were great, and I’m gonna miss them so much.
Though at the same time, it’s nice to be on my own again. I mean, that’s what I came here to do. I came to see the world and be independent, and though we had a ton of fun and I saw and did a ton of things I wouldn’t have seen on my own, it felt like a good time to leave them. After all, they came on their trip together, and though they invited me along for the entire ride, they deserved to have some time for their own at the end of their journey. I only had one week left, and it was the perfect amount of time to see (some of) both Prague and Budapest.
Anyway, on the train here, I shared a carriage with 4 other backpackers, all from the UK, and it was really fun. I know how to play Hearts now. And I’m kind of good at it. Anyway, on this SIX HOUR train, I had a few moments of pure ecstasy and clarity. Just…these moments where I’m so aware of the fact that I’m having such a good time here and that everything is awesome and amazing and that I’m becoming a global citizen and I’m not even halfway done with my journey yet.
I’ve been having these moments a lot lately, and it’s like, impossible to adequately describe them. Time is going by faster with each day, and it’s kind of sad, but I know it’s a good thing…because time flies when you’re having fun. And it wouldn’t be flying if I was stressed or not enjoying my time here. But anyway, in a matter of days I will be on my way to a developing country, and one in particular that is at the crossroads of many different global issues and tensions...that I've wanted to visit for years now...and I’m very much excited...and then after that, it’s gonna be paradise even farther east!
Yay for life.
- Josh A
Oh, and PS, I really really want to start reading a new book. Anyone have any suggestions?
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Random Thought: 20
Hello again,
So, I'm going to elucidate on friendships.
When I went to college, I really only kept in touch with a small handful of people from high school. There was Winston, Gina, Kyle, Kristina and Andy, but beyond that, I wasn’t very social with most of the people I had parted ways with. In most cases, it wasn’t personal at all, I was just ready for college and getting out of Tipton, and little by little, I talked to most of my friends less and less.
As Freshman year went on, I hung out with Brittany a few times, Jojo here and there, Gina & Winston came to see me some, and I think I hung out with Erik and Jill once in Currier. But really I was focused on my various new friends. And I assumed that everyone else was doing the same. PS, I had a lot of friends freshman year. This is mostly because I was super-involved on-campus, which makes me laugh now because I think that 99% of all campus orgs are huge wastes of time only intended to pad peoples’ resumes. But it’s like, who cares if you’re in some dumb fraternity? Is that really an attractive quality to the outside world? It still makes me laugh when people think that future employers will care if they are the president of the Bowling Club or whatever.
Anyway it was never like Ok Gina I don’t like you now or anything like that, it was just that I guess I thought it was the natural progression of things. Like if Gina was in town, we’d hang out, but beyond that, I really began to drift apart from my high school friends. I think I’ve only talked to Amanda Hembry twice throughout all 4 years of college...even though senior year we were kind of inseparable. And though I did miss many people that I didn't see anymore, I had taken from popular opinion that people leave high school, make new friends in college, and these are your new friends, like for life. Then upon happenchance you go home for Christmas and see your old buddy at a bar and you guys catch up over drinks and promise to hang out again soon even though how will that happen because you live 2 hours away from each other.
But really, I honestly thought that, like, my friends I had made in college were my new family. Like, I always assumed that Sam and I would go onto be roommates in grad school someday. Or that Jess and I would both want to get out of Iowa City so badly that we’d up and move to New York to be a younger version of Will and Grace. LIKE FOR EXAMPLE. There’s this episode of Dawson’s Creek (really) where Joey is having a totally believable conversation with her professor, as per usual. And she’s using the appropriate vocabulary for an eighteen year old, and her professor asks her ‘Where do most people make the best friends of their life? And don’t say high school.’ And she answers ‘College.’ Right? Exactly. You’re supposed to go to college and make new friends and have your eyes opened and then be next-door neighbors roommate from freshman year, and marry someone you met in med school or something and blahblahblah. Then go to high school reunions and play catch up.
So, imagine my thought-process now, as I find myself at 22 years old, and I’m more excited to make plans to hang out with various friends from high school than to make new friends in Iowa City...It's so weird, because, like, I used to thrive on meeting new people. I would always strike up conversations with people in class, and go to all these campus events, and over the last four years, I made countless friends and had an absolute blast. But now, the number of people from high school I hang out with is pretty on par with collegians...if not greater than. Over the last year, I’ve found myself joyfully reconnected to Steph, Erik, Tyler, Gina, Jojo, Caden, Meritt & Jackie. And I just made plans to hang out with Liz when I get back, and I’m really excited, because I absolutely love Liz!
Hanging out with Steph is like, such a highlight of any week or even month, and I totally hope that we are still hanging out bi-monthly ten years from now, because I love her and miss her so much and I have more fun with her than I can ever possibly imagine. I just spent 3 days in Venice with Meritt and we’re already planning on travelling somewhere together soon. I see her more than I ever see Winston, Andy, or most of the people I used to think were my new college ‘family’ or whatever. Jackie and I are fucking going to travel to Bali together for 4 freaking days and I have talked with her via Skype and blogs more often than I’ve facebooked any of my friends from Iowa since I’ve been gone (sans Jason).
On the one hand, it’s kind of weird, because like, I really feel you shouldn’t be so reliant on friends from high school to fill up your time…because I mean, coming from a small town, there should be like 6 billion other people in this world who are cooler than the people you graduated with. And you don’t want to go to your 10 year reunion and be like ‘I still hang out with everyone from high school.’ Right? Like that’s the stuff that movies are made of. But at the same time, it’s like, these people that I love and care about are freaking sweet. Jackie is living in Singapore right now and will always be one of the funniest and most opinionated people I’ve ever met, and she makes more of an effort to be aware of the problems facing our country and world than a lot of people I know who are in grad school. Erik just got back from spending a summer in Japan and I’ve never met another guy who has as much in common with me in terms of taste in TV Shows or Movies (sans Jason).
Tyler is also someone who I’ve always had great respect for and even in high school, I wanted him to be Homecoming King and Class President and Valedictorian and everything because he was a cool fucking guy, and he still is! Only cooler because now he’s lived all over the US AND Italy and can handle his alcohol. Gina has worked her way through college and is about to move to Chicago before pursuing a master’s degree. Like me, she wants to succeed and educate herself and see bigger and better things than Iowa too. It’s like, why wouldn’t I want to be friends with these people?
Or I was just talking to my boyfriend over Skype about Meritt. Like, in high school, Meritt and I were never best friends. But, we were pretty good friends. Like we hung out more often than not, and as we were both on the Swim Team and in Concert Choir and the Musical every year, we were pretty well acquainted. We always had inside jokes and I felt pretty comfortable around her, and vice versa, I think. But at the same time, we were never close enough that I thought we’d be lifelong friends. But I always felt like she was someone that I could be lifelong friends with. She has all the qualities of someone I would love to be good friends with, ya know? Like she’s super fun and nice and smart and talented and she never seemed small town, though that’s what we both were I’m sure, and now that she's gone to college she, like me, realizes just how much better it is to not be small-town. And she has goals and is driven to succeed and probably will! Whenever I thought about her in my first few years of college, I would really hope that she was happy. Well, a couple years later, we're…like…pretty good friends, I think. And it makes me really happy.
It’s kind of the same with Jackie. Like, we were pretty much Becca & Tucker from Flash Forward in middle school and freshman year, and, again, as we were both in choir and swimming and musicals, we just had lots of time to get to know each other and be presences in each other’s lives. If anything, we always had similar senses of humor. In other words, we didn't like to take things too seriously and we both liked to quote movies and just have fun. For different reasons (mostly, I think I just didn’t care enough about preserving my friendships, which I didn’t realize until far too late in life), we drifted apart and hardly were social toward the end of high school. Then I think before February of this year, we randomly hung out once over Christmas Break of sophomore year. But even so, I always had a really great opinion of her and I always looked back on the time we spent in EIGHT AND NINTH GRADE as being a really great time. Like, honestly, I would look back on this time when I was 14 years old and think ‘god that was so fun, I miss her.’
And now it’s just so crazy because I’ve really come to question the importance getting out there and making tons of new lifelong friends in college. I mean, in theory, yes, it makes sense. If you only ever are friends with your friends from high school and are still surrounded by the same thoughts and ideas and attitudes as you were then, then yeah, you probably missed out. This is one reason I'm glad I didn't go to UNI. I fear I might have just stayed too close to my friends who went there and not venture out, and even if I did, like everyone who goes there is from a small Iowa town. But to be fair, Iowa is all kids from Chicago, and the leftovers are all kids from Iowa. And really, going to any school in Iowa is going to be a lot like high school, in that it’s going to be white, middle class, Protestant, etc. But I’m still thankful for the fact that I did make friends with people who weren’t from Iowa. Jess, Ailyn, Kaisa, Patrick, Fernando have all helped to open my eyes in one way or another…even if only ever so slightly. Anyway, I’m getting off-track.
I’m just saying that even if I don’t have many friends at school now, I’m still thankful for the relationships I do or did have (even the 75% of friends who turned out to be assholes, whom I'm mostly referring to throughout this entry), because I do have good friends, and there are people from college that I hope to get to know really well someday, perhaps when I get back, or in the future. But oddly, I’m currently in a very surprisingly enjoyable place by striking up these once-retired relationships from high school, and I’m more excited about spending time and re-forming bonds with these old friends than any kind of opportunity to make friends that a campus org or class could provide me at Iowa…and I’m very okay with the notion of maintaining the status quo in my life for the time being. Not to say that don't also enjoy hanging out with the cool people that ARE in my life from Iowa either.
When you think about it, it kind of makes sense. I mean, once I leave Iowa City, I’m not gonna have many reasons to come back. I’m not gonna be coming back for Homecoming to stumble over drunks, or to hopefully work here or go to grad school or anything like that…but I will most likely return to Tipton every now and then. If I'm going to commune with my fellow Iowa alum, I'd rather meet in Chicago or fly to so and so's new home on the coast or whatever. But anyway, my parents live in Tipton, my grandparents do too, etc, and if Erik is home for the weekend or Jill wants to hang out or something, I’m totally down.
So again, I reiterate my point from the previous point: College really has become more of a period of transition, rather than a new beginning. And I’m thankful for my time here, and those that I’ve met along the way, especially people that I still really care about very much, like Jess and Maggie and the Allens and Hannah and my roommates…but I’m very excited to see what my life will be like in, say, ten years. Or twenty. Who will be in my life? Will I look back on college as the golden years of my life, as I always thought I would? Or high school? Or the soon-after college years where I have this interesting group of friends from both? Or who knows…maybe that title will be reserved for my various trips abroad :) It's just funny how things never turn out the way you think they will.
PS I’m on a bus whose driver is driving as though he has a death wish, and Cher’s Believe is on the radio. This song is officially the most common song on the radio while transporting from one town to another in southern Europe.
So, I'm going to elucidate on friendships.
When I went to college, I really only kept in touch with a small handful of people from high school. There was Winston, Gina, Kyle, Kristina and Andy, but beyond that, I wasn’t very social with most of the people I had parted ways with. In most cases, it wasn’t personal at all, I was just ready for college and getting out of Tipton, and little by little, I talked to most of my friends less and less.
As Freshman year went on, I hung out with Brittany a few times, Jojo here and there, Gina & Winston came to see me some, and I think I hung out with Erik and Jill once in Currier. But really I was focused on my various new friends. And I assumed that everyone else was doing the same. PS, I had a lot of friends freshman year. This is mostly because I was super-involved on-campus, which makes me laugh now because I think that 99% of all campus orgs are huge wastes of time only intended to pad peoples’ resumes. But it’s like, who cares if you’re in some dumb fraternity? Is that really an attractive quality to the outside world? It still makes me laugh when people think that future employers will care if they are the president of the Bowling Club or whatever.
Anyway it was never like Ok Gina I don’t like you now or anything like that, it was just that I guess I thought it was the natural progression of things. Like if Gina was in town, we’d hang out, but beyond that, I really began to drift apart from my high school friends. I think I’ve only talked to Amanda Hembry twice throughout all 4 years of college...even though senior year we were kind of inseparable. And though I did miss many people that I didn't see anymore, I had taken from popular opinion that people leave high school, make new friends in college, and these are your new friends, like for life. Then upon happenchance you go home for Christmas and see your old buddy at a bar and you guys catch up over drinks and promise to hang out again soon even though how will that happen because you live 2 hours away from each other.
But really, I honestly thought that, like, my friends I had made in college were my new family. Like, I always assumed that Sam and I would go onto be roommates in grad school someday. Or that Jess and I would both want to get out of Iowa City so badly that we’d up and move to New York to be a younger version of Will and Grace. LIKE FOR EXAMPLE. There’s this episode of Dawson’s Creek (really) where Joey is having a totally believable conversation with her professor, as per usual. And she’s using the appropriate vocabulary for an eighteen year old, and her professor asks her ‘Where do most people make the best friends of their life? And don’t say high school.’ And she answers ‘College.’ Right? Exactly. You’re supposed to go to college and make new friends and have your eyes opened and then be next-door neighbors roommate from freshman year, and marry someone you met in med school or something and blahblahblah. Then go to high school reunions and play catch up.
So, imagine my thought-process now, as I find myself at 22 years old, and I’m more excited to make plans to hang out with various friends from high school than to make new friends in Iowa City...It's so weird, because, like, I used to thrive on meeting new people. I would always strike up conversations with people in class, and go to all these campus events, and over the last four years, I made countless friends and had an absolute blast. But now, the number of people from high school I hang out with is pretty on par with collegians...if not greater than. Over the last year, I’ve found myself joyfully reconnected to Steph, Erik, Tyler, Gina, Jojo, Caden, Meritt & Jackie. And I just made plans to hang out with Liz when I get back, and I’m really excited, because I absolutely love Liz!
Hanging out with Steph is like, such a highlight of any week or even month, and I totally hope that we are still hanging out bi-monthly ten years from now, because I love her and miss her so much and I have more fun with her than I can ever possibly imagine. I just spent 3 days in Venice with Meritt and we’re already planning on travelling somewhere together soon. I see her more than I ever see Winston, Andy, or most of the people I used to think were my new college ‘family’ or whatever. Jackie and I are fucking going to travel to Bali together for 4 freaking days and I have talked with her via Skype and blogs more often than I’ve facebooked any of my friends from Iowa since I’ve been gone (sans Jason).
On the one hand, it’s kind of weird, because like, I really feel you shouldn’t be so reliant on friends from high school to fill up your time…because I mean, coming from a small town, there should be like 6 billion other people in this world who are cooler than the people you graduated with. And you don’t want to go to your 10 year reunion and be like ‘I still hang out with everyone from high school.’ Right? Like that’s the stuff that movies are made of. But at the same time, it’s like, these people that I love and care about are freaking sweet. Jackie is living in Singapore right now and will always be one of the funniest and most opinionated people I’ve ever met, and she makes more of an effort to be aware of the problems facing our country and world than a lot of people I know who are in grad school. Erik just got back from spending a summer in Japan and I’ve never met another guy who has as much in common with me in terms of taste in TV Shows or Movies (sans Jason).
Tyler is also someone who I’ve always had great respect for and even in high school, I wanted him to be Homecoming King and Class President and Valedictorian and everything because he was a cool fucking guy, and he still is! Only cooler because now he’s lived all over the US AND Italy and can handle his alcohol. Gina has worked her way through college and is about to move to Chicago before pursuing a master’s degree. Like me, she wants to succeed and educate herself and see bigger and better things than Iowa too. It’s like, why wouldn’t I want to be friends with these people?
Or I was just talking to my boyfriend over Skype about Meritt. Like, in high school, Meritt and I were never best friends. But, we were pretty good friends. Like we hung out more often than not, and as we were both on the Swim Team and in Concert Choir and the Musical every year, we were pretty well acquainted. We always had inside jokes and I felt pretty comfortable around her, and vice versa, I think. But at the same time, we were never close enough that I thought we’d be lifelong friends. But I always felt like she was someone that I could be lifelong friends with. She has all the qualities of someone I would love to be good friends with, ya know? Like she’s super fun and nice and smart and talented and she never seemed small town, though that’s what we both were I’m sure, and now that she's gone to college she, like me, realizes just how much better it is to not be small-town. And she has goals and is driven to succeed and probably will! Whenever I thought about her in my first few years of college, I would really hope that she was happy. Well, a couple years later, we're…like…pretty good friends, I think. And it makes me really happy.
It’s kind of the same with Jackie. Like, we were pretty much Becca & Tucker from Flash Forward in middle school and freshman year, and, again, as we were both in choir and swimming and musicals, we just had lots of time to get to know each other and be presences in each other’s lives. If anything, we always had similar senses of humor. In other words, we didn't like to take things too seriously and we both liked to quote movies and just have fun. For different reasons (mostly, I think I just didn’t care enough about preserving my friendships, which I didn’t realize until far too late in life), we drifted apart and hardly were social toward the end of high school. Then I think before February of this year, we randomly hung out once over Christmas Break of sophomore year. But even so, I always had a really great opinion of her and I always looked back on the time we spent in EIGHT AND NINTH GRADE as being a really great time. Like, honestly, I would look back on this time when I was 14 years old and think ‘god that was so fun, I miss her.’
And now it’s just so crazy because I’ve really come to question the importance getting out there and making tons of new lifelong friends in college. I mean, in theory, yes, it makes sense. If you only ever are friends with your friends from high school and are still surrounded by the same thoughts and ideas and attitudes as you were then, then yeah, you probably missed out. This is one reason I'm glad I didn't go to UNI. I fear I might have just stayed too close to my friends who went there and not venture out, and even if I did, like everyone who goes there is from a small Iowa town. But to be fair, Iowa is all kids from Chicago, and the leftovers are all kids from Iowa. And really, going to any school in Iowa is going to be a lot like high school, in that it’s going to be white, middle class, Protestant, etc. But I’m still thankful for the fact that I did make friends with people who weren’t from Iowa. Jess, Ailyn, Kaisa, Patrick, Fernando have all helped to open my eyes in one way or another…even if only ever so slightly. Anyway, I’m getting off-track.
I’m just saying that even if I don’t have many friends at school now, I’m still thankful for the relationships I do or did have (even the 75% of friends who turned out to be assholes, whom I'm mostly referring to throughout this entry), because I do have good friends, and there are people from college that I hope to get to know really well someday, perhaps when I get back, or in the future. But oddly, I’m currently in a very surprisingly enjoyable place by striking up these once-retired relationships from high school, and I’m more excited about spending time and re-forming bonds with these old friends than any kind of opportunity to make friends that a campus org or class could provide me at Iowa…and I’m very okay with the notion of maintaining the status quo in my life for the time being. Not to say that don't also enjoy hanging out with the cool people that ARE in my life from Iowa either.
When you think about it, it kind of makes sense. I mean, once I leave Iowa City, I’m not gonna have many reasons to come back. I’m not gonna be coming back for Homecoming to stumble over drunks, or to hopefully work here or go to grad school or anything like that…but I will most likely return to Tipton every now and then. If I'm going to commune with my fellow Iowa alum, I'd rather meet in Chicago or fly to so and so's new home on the coast or whatever. But anyway, my parents live in Tipton, my grandparents do too, etc, and if Erik is home for the weekend or Jill wants to hang out or something, I’m totally down.
So again, I reiterate my point from the previous point: College really has become more of a period of transition, rather than a new beginning. And I’m thankful for my time here, and those that I’ve met along the way, especially people that I still really care about very much, like Jess and Maggie and the Allens and Hannah and my roommates…but I’m very excited to see what my life will be like in, say, ten years. Or twenty. Who will be in my life? Will I look back on college as the golden years of my life, as I always thought I would? Or high school? Or the soon-after college years where I have this interesting group of friends from both? Or who knows…maybe that title will be reserved for my various trips abroad :) It's just funny how things never turn out the way you think they will.
PS I’m on a bus whose driver is driving as though he has a death wish, and Cher’s Believe is on the radio. This song is officially the most common song on the radio while transporting from one town to another in southern Europe.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Random Thought: 19
Why hello there,
So, after a few more days in Croatia (yes, I am in Croatia again…for the third time since my arrival in Europe). I have some udpates. First of all, I would like to talk about my ethnicity. For quite some time, I’ve known that I have a very ambiguous phenotype, ethnically speaking. I am half Hispanic (equally of colonial Spanish and Native Mexican descent), and half Caucasian (composed of German, Pennsylvania Dutch, Swedish and one of the UK countries). There are also traces of Native American heritage here and there, and there has always been talk within my (dad’s) family of being decendents of Sitting Bull.
Whatever.
My name’s Josh Anderson though, so most people just assume I’m fully Caucasian with a good tan, I believe. Whenever I tell people I’m Hispanic, I usually get responses such as ‘Really??’ or ‘I figured you were something.’ My boyfriend told me that when he first met me, he would often see Asian men on the street from afar and wonder if it was me. Earlier this year, I volunteered with a special needs high school student through the Best Buddies program, and he asked if I was Egyptian. My friend Danielle who pretty much lives in Greece told me that when I went there, people would assume I was Greek. My friend CX, who is Malaysian, informed me that when I finally get there, I could probably pass for some kind of Southeast Asian. To sum it up, I’m all over the place.
Last night, the Danes and I shared a room with a Spanish fellow, named Alberto. He was from Barcelona, or Sevila, I can’t remember. My Danish friend Emilie actually majored in Spanish. So, they were chatting away, even though she couldn’t remember how to say ‘down the hall’, and I was like, well I speak some Spanish, so I might as well try some out. The exchange went as follows:
J: Eres de Espana?
A: ….hmm?
J: Eres de Espana?
A: ….um…Ethpana?
Apparently, I’m so bad at Spanish now that he had literally no idea what I was saying. So I gave up on being culturally sensitive and just assumed he spoke English and said ‘Are you from Spain?’ and he was like ‘Yeth, Barthelona (or Thevilla)!’ So anyway then he told us that he couldn’t believe Emilie wasn’t from Spain, because she totally looked Spanish, Northern Spanish, to be exact. I always jump at the opportunity to do this, so I went ‘Do I look Spanish?’ Then he looked at me with the blankest look he could possibly muster, then kind of laughed, because he assumed I was obviously joking.
After Emilie and I laughed about this for like 5 minutes (and he got way confused), we told him it was funny because I actually am Spanish. He was so taken aback, and apparently it’s because of my eyes. I figured he meant the color of my eyes, because my eyes are this weird, like, auburn color that’s kind of brown but also kind of yellow and people have commented on them before. But apparently, it’s the shape of my eyes. So I’m like ‘Do you mean I have Asian eyes?’ He kind of got embarrassed, like saying Asian eyes is insensitive, and it probably is, but whatever, they’re my eyes. I’m proud of my Asian eyes! Jennie Jones had Cat Eyes and she embraced it.
Anyway, I apparently do, in fact have Asian eyes. And according to Jason, I have Asian hair too. So, I have a Swedish name but am mostly of Hispanic descent, yet I look Asian. I’m totally ok with that. I’ve always wanted to go to Asia anyway. Should I go in about a week? I dunno, we’ll see, but I hope that someday I actually can go on a kind of heritage tour. Like, I need to go Mexico, definitely. I know that. Eventually, I need to go to Mexico. And Spain. My mother’s mother’s maiden name is Cardenas, and one time I looked it up, and apparently all people with the name Cardenas are descendants of some royal family in the city of Cardenas, Spain, that settled there because of persecution. So I HAVE to go to that town. But I also really want to go to Sweden. Even though I’ve never really identified with any part of my Swedish heritage, my name is freaking Anderson. I need to get there someday.
I guess the only areas I’ve ever been to that kind of count would be the Netherlands. For 8 hours.
On a completely different note, my European trip is about 70% finished, and it’s so strange that it’s almost over! I have spent nearly 2 weeks with these great girls and time has just flown by. Starting tomorrow, I’ll be on my own again for the last 8 days and 7 nights of my European adventure. At least at the beginning of it. By this time next week, I’ll have two more countries to add to my map, Hungary and the Czech Republic, and I’m really excited!
However, I’d like to point out that I think I’ve FINALLY learned my lesson. It’s really not about seeing as much as possible. It’s about seeing something different at all…and still being able to wake up in the morning to make sure you take advantage of the time you have. And pretty soon, I’m gonna get really, really different, and I can’t wait!
- Josh A
So, after a few more days in Croatia (yes, I am in Croatia again…for the third time since my arrival in Europe). I have some udpates. First of all, I would like to talk about my ethnicity. For quite some time, I’ve known that I have a very ambiguous phenotype, ethnically speaking. I am half Hispanic (equally of colonial Spanish and Native Mexican descent), and half Caucasian (composed of German, Pennsylvania Dutch, Swedish and one of the UK countries). There are also traces of Native American heritage here and there, and there has always been talk within my (dad’s) family of being decendents of Sitting Bull.
Whatever.
My name’s Josh Anderson though, so most people just assume I’m fully Caucasian with a good tan, I believe. Whenever I tell people I’m Hispanic, I usually get responses such as ‘Really??’ or ‘I figured you were something.’ My boyfriend told me that when he first met me, he would often see Asian men on the street from afar and wonder if it was me. Earlier this year, I volunteered with a special needs high school student through the Best Buddies program, and he asked if I was Egyptian. My friend Danielle who pretty much lives in Greece told me that when I went there, people would assume I was Greek. My friend CX, who is Malaysian, informed me that when I finally get there, I could probably pass for some kind of Southeast Asian. To sum it up, I’m all over the place.
Last night, the Danes and I shared a room with a Spanish fellow, named Alberto. He was from Barcelona, or Sevila, I can’t remember. My Danish friend Emilie actually majored in Spanish. So, they were chatting away, even though she couldn’t remember how to say ‘down the hall’, and I was like, well I speak some Spanish, so I might as well try some out. The exchange went as follows:
J: Eres de Espana?
A: ….hmm?
J: Eres de Espana?
A: ….um…Ethpana?
Apparently, I’m so bad at Spanish now that he had literally no idea what I was saying. So I gave up on being culturally sensitive and just assumed he spoke English and said ‘Are you from Spain?’ and he was like ‘Yeth, Barthelona (or Thevilla)!’ So anyway then he told us that he couldn’t believe Emilie wasn’t from Spain, because she totally looked Spanish, Northern Spanish, to be exact. I always jump at the opportunity to do this, so I went ‘Do I look Spanish?’ Then he looked at me with the blankest look he could possibly muster, then kind of laughed, because he assumed I was obviously joking.
After Emilie and I laughed about this for like 5 minutes (and he got way confused), we told him it was funny because I actually am Spanish. He was so taken aback, and apparently it’s because of my eyes. I figured he meant the color of my eyes, because my eyes are this weird, like, auburn color that’s kind of brown but also kind of yellow and people have commented on them before. But apparently, it’s the shape of my eyes. So I’m like ‘Do you mean I have Asian eyes?’ He kind of got embarrassed, like saying Asian eyes is insensitive, and it probably is, but whatever, they’re my eyes. I’m proud of my Asian eyes! Jennie Jones had Cat Eyes and she embraced it.
Anyway, I apparently do, in fact have Asian eyes. And according to Jason, I have Asian hair too. So, I have a Swedish name but am mostly of Hispanic descent, yet I look Asian. I’m totally ok with that. I’ve always wanted to go to Asia anyway. Should I go in about a week? I dunno, we’ll see, but I hope that someday I actually can go on a kind of heritage tour. Like, I need to go Mexico, definitely. I know that. Eventually, I need to go to Mexico. And Spain. My mother’s mother’s maiden name is Cardenas, and one time I looked it up, and apparently all people with the name Cardenas are descendants of some royal family in the city of Cardenas, Spain, that settled there because of persecution. So I HAVE to go to that town. But I also really want to go to Sweden. Even though I’ve never really identified with any part of my Swedish heritage, my name is freaking Anderson. I need to get there someday.
I guess the only areas I’ve ever been to that kind of count would be the Netherlands. For 8 hours.
On a completely different note, my European trip is about 70% finished, and it’s so strange that it’s almost over! I have spent nearly 2 weeks with these great girls and time has just flown by. Starting tomorrow, I’ll be on my own again for the last 8 days and 7 nights of my European adventure. At least at the beginning of it. By this time next week, I’ll have two more countries to add to my map, Hungary and the Czech Republic, and I’m really excited!
However, I’d like to point out that I think I’ve FINALLY learned my lesson. It’s really not about seeing as much as possible. It’s about seeing something different at all…and still being able to wake up in the morning to make sure you take advantage of the time you have. And pretty soon, I’m gonna get really, really different, and I can’t wait!
- Josh A
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