Life's a trip

Update!

2008-04-29T16:35:00.002-04:00

It's been too long - but to be honest, life has become a little too full for regular posts.
Still, here's a quick update.

- The job. Sometimes I love it, sometimes I hate it. It's a rollercoaster, but I am finding my way, and it's an exciting challenge.
- The city. Munich doesn't have the same old-fashioned charme that I love about Vienna, but there's a reason it is called Italy's northernmost city. It's got a bit of everything: Art & Music, Architecture, beautiful green spaces, BIKE LANES everywhere, hip bars, funky little stores, and diverse neighborhoods. I miss my home, but I like it here!
- The boyfriend. He caught me by surprise, but it's definitely been the best surprise so far.
- The place. Turning my 26 m2 gigantic room into a home took a while, but I love it now. It's got everything from a comfy bed to a sunny breakfast area, and I can hear the birds chirping while I munch on my cornflakes in the morning.
- Bedtime habits. It turns out I love to sleep. And I need to sleep - a lot. Ever since I've started working, there's nothing better than an early night with a good book. I'm getting old.

All in all, life's been pretty exciting for the past three months. And I do not intend for this fact to change anytime soon!

Fishy Valentine

2008-02-14T05:50:00.002-05:00

Yes, I've arrived in Munich. Yes, I've started a job. And yes, I love it. But life's too full and busy (and good) to document it all here. That's why, for today, I leave you with one of my favorite comic strips. Enjoy!

Long-term love

2008-01-24T14:03:00.000-05:00

At first, we were only acquaintances. I ran into her every couple of years, thought she was more of the snobbish, stand-offish type. She was quite the stunner, but pretty rough 'round the edges.

Then, I got to know her from the inside. I discovered all kinds of hidden qualities - amazing cooking skills, a great taste in art and music, and her style wasn't too shabby either. Also, she kept surprising me with new sides of her personality. I had come to know her as the classic type, a bit old-fashioned maybe, with a touch of kitsch. But as the years went by, she turned out to be quite diverse - sometimes elegant and poised, sometimes loud and sassy, sometimes hectic, and sometimes completely serene.

Today, me and Vienna are tight. I know her well, and I've discovered her most beautiful facets. I know that she will continue developing and evolving, but at the same time it's comforting to know that regardless of where life will lead me, she'll always remain essentially the same, waiting for me with a cup of steaming hot chocolate, the sounds of hooves on cobblestone, and her grumpy charme.

And on a day like today, when I walk through her back allies and majestic boulevards, along breathtaking buildings and all kinds of beauty, she makes me fall in love with her all over again.

Done, done, and done!

2008-01-20T18:27:00.000-05:00

Just turned 92 pages of wisdom in to my professor - the result of seven months of work. Amy says it feels like giving birth through your head ... I'd rather attribute the woozy feeling in my brain to the massive cold that hit me right at the end of a month-long nonstop cramming session.

So, lets recap, shall we?

Masters thesis ... check.
Job ... check.
Pearly-white, brace-less teeth ... check.
Apartment ... working on it.
Farewell party ... in the making.

The new year has started well. I've had no time for the obligatory 2007 review / 2008 preview post, but there is still hope.

Ten days until I move to Munich. Somehow life is pretty exciting.

Changes, changes

2007-12-22T06:50:00.000-05:00

Yikes! This all happened fast. A week ago, I went to Munich thinking I'd use the opportunity to practise interviewing, and here I am, officially in possession of my first job.

Signed, sealed, delivered, I'm their's.

Funny how life sometimes takes unexpected turns, and suddenly you find yourself in a job you would have never considered, in a city that was never on your "Need to move there" list, and with a perspective on the next couple of years that is entirely different from what you had thought of. If you had asked me a few months, or even a few weeks ago, I would have told you something along the lines of "I am going to New York to change the world". Now, I am moving to the city of giant pretzels and beer in less than six weeks, and it's more myself that will develop and change within the next few years. However, changing the world is still at the top of my list, and I consider all the sales and management experience that I will get in the next few years a step in that direction.

The reality of it all hasn't quite hit me yet, and I would be lying if I said that I am not nervous and a little apprehensive. On the other hand, I got this job all by myself, and for the first time in my life I'm on my own, looking to build my life independently of anyone else.

I have a feeling that it will be a good experience.

Coming up...

2007-12-07T05:34:00.000-05:00

1) A new brother-in law in July next year. Anna and Alfonso got engaged a month ago, and this is how happy they are:

One thing is for sure: Their kids will be very, very skinny.

2) More decisions. One job offer is on the table, another one is in the works. They are entirely different (foreign policy/press and online media monitoring/sales), and there might be more coming up. One job possibly involves moving cities, the other one has very little to do with what I studied. And amidst it all, I am trying to finish my thesis and figure out whether I really want to put my interest in transforming society aside for the sake of getting some job experience and making some money.

Stem Cell Breakthrough

2007-11-20T17:26:00.000-05:00

Following up on Saturday's Dolly story, here is another encouraging piece of news: Two separate teams of scientists in the US have apparently found a way to reprogram adult stem cells in a way that makes them pluripotent, meaning that they can turn into any kind of body cell. This was a characteristic that has so far been specific to embryonic stem cells, which was the main argument for ongoing research in that area, despite the moral issues. They have run successful tests with human cells, not animal cells - if this really works, all the arguments for ES research might be going down the drain as we speak.

Speaking of genius...

2007-11-19T06:38:00.000-05:00

Here's a (translated) quote from Pia's Master's thesis on Aristotle's definition of happiness:

The perfection of a scientific discipline does not lie in accumulating yet more knowledge of details, but in recognizing the principles that are at its heart, and in contemplating the eternal.

A good reminder for someone who spends her days plowing through methodologies and statistics, the boring details of scientific research...

PS: Did you know that Aristotle defines happiness not as a state of being, but as an activity or a way of life? How cool is that...

Readable...?

2007-11-18T12:16:00.000-05:00

Just took the Readability Test for this blog. It measures the level of education required to understand my blog.

The outcome surprises me.

Hmmm. The FT.com Economists' Forum Blog has college (undergrad) reading level.

Can't decide whether this is a compliment or a reason to worry.

Goodbye, Dolly

2007-11-17T11:44:00.000-05:00

Continuing the recent trend on this blog of bringing up social and political issues, here is an article from today's Telegraph announcing that Prof. Ian Wilmut, one of the driving forces of therapeutic cloning and "father" of the clone sheep Dolly, has turned his back on his own plan to go forward with a certain form of therapeutic cloning called "nuclear transfer". His reasons are mainly practical, but he also mentions issues with "social acceptance" - the nuclear transfer method involves the use of surplus embroys from in-vitro fertilization, which are destroyed in the process.

The piece also features another (older) article by Wilmut on the debate of whether blastocysts (early-stage embryos) can really be referred to as persons. This is really the crux of the matter - if they are persons, there is no question that to destroy them means to kill human life. But are they? Wilmut makes the following distinction:
"The main reason why I do not regard a blastocyst as a person is that it has no mental life. [...] The critical issue is when this capacity to think first appears." He talks about "brain birth", the mirror image of "brain death", which is the irreversible end of all brain activity, and the point after which a person can be officially declared as dead.

What is wrong with this view? I am no scientist, nor am I a theologian, but to me linking the "personhood" of a human being to its brain activity seems dangerous, especially when we are talking about the beginning of human life. Concerning its end, things are pretty straight-forward: When we die, the body ceases to function, and the person that we used to be ceases to exist on this earth. If another person or object is the cause for this death, we usually refer to this person as "having been killed".
At the beginning of life, however, we are dealing with something (or, although it seems strange to call a mass of cells that, someONE) that, regardless of its mental abilities, will, under normal circumstances, keep developing until, even to the most practically minded, it is clearly identifiable as a baby. Any impediment to this process puts an end to existing human life - human life that is unique, has a separate identity and is therefore necessarily a person.

Therefore, it seems that even to those that do not - like me - believe that every human life, from conception until natural death, is wanted and willed by its Creator, it must be clear that producing and destroying embryos for the sake of therapy involves ending lives that are already in progress. Distinctions between "pre-personhood" and "personhood", as Wilmut makes them, are irrelevant, because even if you look at an embryo not in terms of what it is, but of what it is becoming, one has no right to interfere with this process.

On the matter of brain activity and personhood, there is another great article by the philosopher Pete Colosi on Peter Singer and Utilitarianism. Definitely worth your time.

Also, especially for those who tend to think that the Catholic Church has no solid reasons for her positions, read this.

Any thoughts? (Lurkers, I know you are out there...)

Man, I feel like a woman

2007-11-12T15:57:00.000-05:00

This Shania Twain song takes on a whole new meaning in the light of an (arguably tendentious) news story that recently caught my attention, reporting on the introduction of a bill in California that bans from classrooms "any instructional materials that reflect adversely upon persons because of their race, sex, color, creed, handicap, national origin, or ancestry". As usual, it is not the race, handicap, national origin or even creed, but the "sex" part that worries me. Why? Here goes:

This bill SB777 (signed, incidentally, by our very own export, the Governator himself) might seem to fit nicely into the P.C. trend of our times. But if you take a closer look, you come across the following definition of "gender":

210.7. "Gender" means sex, and includes a person's gender identity and gender related appearance and behavior whether or not stereotypically associated with the person's assigned sex at birth.

What does this definition imply?

1) There is no natural sex that is reflected in both the body and the mind. People are not born as men and women, they are assigned a sex at birth, according to a stereotype, or they assume an identity, meaning that they choose whether they self-identify as a man or a woman, regardless of their biological preconditions.
2) Consequently, there is no "normal" case of gender, meaning that one is wrong to assume that people that look like men are actually men, because sex now becomes a matter of definition, or even a matter of personal choice.

The implications of this bill reach from worrying (children will now be taught that it is discriminatory to naturally refer to parents as "mother and father") to freakish (a boy can choose to use a girls' locker room or bathroom if he self-identifies as female), but what really got me thinking is a point that reaches much deeper.

What we are faced with here is the introduction of an educational system that no longer acknowledges fundamental truths. Everything, according to this approach, is a matter of choice, a relative matter. There is no such thing as a natural man or woman, a natural set of parents (consisting of a mother and a father) - in fact, anything that one acknowledges as fixed, as eternal or natural is deemed discriminatory.

I don't only think that this approach is fundamentally wrong, I also think that it reflects the basic flaw of modern mentality very well: Everything depends on me, on my choices, on my will. There is nothing outside of myself that restricts me, unless I choose a set of rules among many that I will adhere to. But even then, there is no universal world order, no truth that exists for everyone, and independently of our knowledge of it, that even we as humans are subject to. Man has now truly established his (or wait, her?) position as the king of creation. The problem is, it doesn't end here. There are things that transcend human control and understanding, that we have no choice but to bow to in awe and reverence. And if the educational system keeps developing the way it is, children will have a very hard time finding out about them.

(PS: This would merit a whole other story, but read about the case of Bruce/Brenda/David Reimer as a disturbing example of what can happen when people mess with nature.)

Took that

2007-10-29T09:39:00.000-04:00

I was never the type to cover posters of my favorite stars with lipstick kisses or imagine that Leo DiCaprio was my boyfriend. However, I did catch up on this particular phase of adolescence on Friday, when my roomie and soon-to-be bride Aglai and a gang of her ladies celebrated her engagement with High Tea and a Take That concert.

When we arrived to pick up the tickets, the saleswoman informed us that Howard Donald wasn't going to be performing tonight because he was hospitalized with a chest injury. Howard who? Yes, I asked that, too. The looks I caught for that one were sharp as daggers.

Anyway, we had a fabulous time watching the remaining three "boys" (who are almost in their 40s) put on a fabulous show, singing along to "Relight My Fire", "Never Forget" and "Everything Changes But You" like there was no tomorrow, and enjoying the giddy happiness of an average 13-year-old.

Right Brain vs. Left Brain

2007-10-12T09:08:00.000-04:00

This is creepy. For a long time I stared at the dancer as it was turning clockwise, and didn't understand how anyone could see it turning counter-clockwise. Then I focused, and it switched!

So, apparently I use more of the right side of my brain, which has the following functions:

RIGHT BRAIN FUNCTIONS
uses feeling -- check.
"big picture" oriented -- check.
imagination rules -- hmm ... check.
symbols and images -- check.
present and future -- mostly, check.
philosophy & religion -- check, indeed.
can "get it" (i.e. meaning) -- check.
believes -- check.
appreciates -- check.
spatial perception -- most definitely NOT. Ask anyone who's watched me park a car.
knows object function -- ??
fantasy based -- Don't know.
presents possibilities -- impossibilities, mostly.
impetuous -- check.
risk taking -- Not really.

Interesting... it pretty much hits the nail on the head. The one left-brain thing missing on my list is "words and language".

Which way did the dancer turn for you?
(Thanks to mydogischelsea for the link)

Microfinance - do it yourself

2007-10-11T11:23:00.000-04:00

Since Mohammed Yunus won the Nobel Peace Prize for giving the poor access to bank loans, microfinance has become a buzzword. The idea is simple: Microfinance institutions lend small amounts of money ($10-$500) to individuals or groups of people, usually women, in developing countries who in turn use the money to start their own little business and earn an income for their families. At a time where half the world lives on less then $2 a day, services like this one are sorely needed. Also, they are more than simple charity - they encourage people to take their lives into their own two hands and use their own ideas and resources to make a living.

Where there is one innovation, another one is soon to follow: KIVA.org started a website that enables everyone to be a mini-Yunus, so to speak. It lets individuals to pick from a range of different micro-enterprise initiatives in countries around the world and lend money directly to the entrepreneurs running these businesses. Ten dollars are enough to start, but you can go on to build an entire portfolio of businesses that you support.

Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times uses Kiva and went to Afghanistan to visit his business partner, who runs a bakery in the heart of Kabul. Here's a video of his adventure.

Playing it safe!?

2007-10-10T08:53:00.001-04:00

A friend of my mother's who lived in the States for several years recently traveled back to New York to visit her sister. When showing her (European) passport at Immigration, she was told to follow an officer into one of the rooms for a separate interview. Surprised, she asked why they thought she needed to be questioned.

"Your first name is Eleanor, ma'am. That's an Arabic name."
"Arabic!? But I was born in Europe to European parents!?"
"Al-noor is Arabic for light, ma'am. I'm sorry, we will have to conduct a special interview."

Now that's what I call real dedication to Homeland Security.

The power of an image

2007-10-08T11:03:00.000-04:00

"For me, the strength of photography lies in its ability to evoke a sense of humanity. If war is an attempt to negate humanity, then photography can be perceived as the opposite of war and if it is used well it can be a powerful ingredient in the antidote to war. "
- James Nachtwey

I saw a documentary on the war photographer James Nachtwey last night, and it really struck a chord. If you can, find a good video rental in your neighborhood, watch it and let me know your thoughts.

Update

2007-10-07T02:32:00.001-04:00

I just realized that I stop reporting on my actual life whenever I am home. Somehow it just doesn't seem all that spectacular, and it probably isn't.

Everyday life at the Skypad (version 2.0, obviously) involves loooooong hours of staring into books and sifting through piles of paper on a quest to fill the digital pages of my thesis with words that stick. So far I've finished about a quarter of the paper, which is shockingly little given the fact that it is due in December, but I know that I can write, and I do it best when the pressure is on.

While having spent my college years in the glorious absence of the need to work for a living (thank you, mom and dad!!), bills are starting to pile up, and for the first time in my life I find myself working in actual, paid, non-volunteer student jobs: translating at conferences, hostessing (is that even a word? I know waitressing is), and - believe it or not - my first paid gig as a journalist. I am writing a feature article on Ashoka, and it's turning out to be a lot of fun. An odd detail: I've become so used to writing in English that I sometimes need to consult an online dictionary to find the perfect German word.

The quest for a real job is also on - and I am finding it tricky to overcome my good old technique of not even trying things that seem improbable and only going for safe options. The future is wide open - who know where in the world I will be six months from now?

Weekends are often spent at the Mill, trying to satisfy my newfound hunger for fresh air and nature. I guess that happens, especially if you've turned into a full-time nerd. There's nothing like a walk through vineyards, watching the leaves change color (and stealing the occasional grape or pumpkin, shame on me), to clear your head. I suppose "normal" students would prefer dancing the nights away at clubs and sleeping through the days, but in that respect - except for a crazy and fun spell of party fever in Madrid when I was seventeen - I was never normal.

Most of my good friends are married or engaged now, and life has become more quiet, but I like it this way.

PS: I have decided I will use my last semester at school to take Arabic classes. Don't know how much I will learn, but I've always wanted to get beyong haggling at the bazaar and explaining the way to taxi drivers (left, right, left, straight on, here is good, how much?).

Flashback

2007-09-30T02:08:00.000-04:00

Around this time last year, I was in the midst of the glory that is Babson College life: beer pong, frat parties, homecoming parades, Make-Your-Own-Fishtank nights, Bingo tournaments, and women's rugby games.
My Swedish friend and fellow Babson exchange student Jesper put together a video that does a pretty good job at capturing a few defining moments of that semester. Here goes.

A brave lady

2007-09-27T09:12:00.000-04:00

If you a) read German and b) are interested in the accounts of an incredibly brave young lady who scored her first job as a womens' development coordinator in Yemen ...

Check this out.

Leni and I do not only share a first name, but also a great-grandfather (I believe), and all I can tell you is that her adventures are worth a read.

Goodbyes.

2007-09-24T04:03:00.001-04:00

When living a life like mine, which for the most part involved moving countries, houses and schools every few years, you'd think one would get used to goodbyes. The truth is, you never do.

What changes is the fact that you can anticipate how they will feel, the phases you'll be going through, and the (old yet important) truth that time does heal wounds. What also changes is the nature of these goodbyes, the depth of your attachment to a person, an idea or a dream, and consequently the pain of having to let go of them.

I have decided that I won't let the fear of goodbyes influence the way I approach things and - most of all - people, and the degree to which I open up to them. Of course, the more open you are, the more vulnerable you become, but I'd rather pass out what I have to give with both hands and look back onto a life rich with both disappointments and breathtaking surprises. After all, the more painful it is to let go of someone, the greater it was to have had them in your life in the first place. And that I wouldn't want to miss.

Sunsets and Castles

2007-08-27T05:54:00.000-04:00

Just returned from a rather photo-worthy weekend, half of which was unfortunately spent without a camera. Thanks to the www, however, I'll give you a glimpse.

Friday: A beer and a good chat in a deckchair with Sharifin, against the backdrop of one of the most spectacular sunsets I have seen in Vienna so far.

Saturday: Sorted my life out.

Sunday: My roommate Aglai and her brand-new fiancé Felix invited me along to a concert at the old fortress where Felix's family has lived for 23 (!) generations. Eight of us spent the afternoon hanging out at the pool and playing tennis (or watching, respectively) while the bands soundchecked, had a fabulous dinner and then joined the crowd for some German rock.

Clam Castle

The courtyard

The room I spent the night in looked kind of like this, with a spectacular view of the Danube valley

Mid-air

2007-08-24T06:51:00.001-04:00

While I am hanging in mid-air between college and professional life, enjoying home and wanting to move abroad, coming to terms with the past and taking on the future, my blog-spiration has run a little dry. Sometimes the more important events of life take place on the inside, and lose their magic when exposed to the world.

While I wait for the kiss of the muse, a random list of things not to miss:

College memories: Ross Douthat's "Privilege: Harvard and the Education of the Ruling Class" is a book that aptly describes much of what I experienced at Babson and could never properly put into words - the insane careerism of under 21-year-olds, the American undergrad's approach to sexuality, dorm life, grade inflation, and more. Still, it's an intensely personal book, courageously honest, laugh-out-loud funny at times, and filled to the brim with thoughtful, well-researched yet appropriately ironic analyses of the peculiar universe that is the Ivy League school. I enjoyed it a lot - not least because my boyfriend makes quite a few appearances, suitably (though, for those who know him, recognizably) hidden behind a pseudonym...

A different kind of roommate: The latest Audrey Tautou movie does resemble Amélie - a frail girl, - lonely yet social, sad yet always smiling, fragile yet strong. The story of three unusual roommates is a good character study and a heart-warming story, but European enough to never cross the line towards Hollywood kitsch.

Risotto gone French: My own roommate Aglai and I enjoyed a girl's night in last night, and devoured the leftovers of a dinner she had hosted the night before. Crêpes au citron are delicious enough, but the Gorgonzola and pear risotto that she made was the best thing I've eaten since New York sushi.

Why we are ostriches

2007-08-01T12:23:00.000-04:00

"Life is difficult." This is the opening sentence of one of the most interesting books I have read this year - The Road Less Traveled by M. Scott Peck.
Observing readers might have spotted it already a few months ago in the "Books on My Pile" section of this blog, but it was only today that I was reminded of its brilliance when I spoke to my mother about the challenges of life and responsibility.

What Peck makes very clear (in a much better way than I can) is that we would stop lamenting the difficulties of life if we just accepted the fact that life is not a walk in the park, but a series of problems that require solving. That is why we pose ficticious problems to children in school - we mean to teach them the discipline necessary to confront the large and small hardships of life.
It is only because we refuse to accept this fact - or simply ignore it - that it comes back to haunt us. The pain of confronting an issue that we have ignored and that has grown out of proportion is much greater than the pain of going ahead an finding a solution in the first place. And still, like ostriches, we stick our heads into the sand and pretend that life is only really worth living when it's entirely enjoyable.

I am no exception. The more important something is, the longer it takes me to actually get my act together and do something. Job applications. Car repairs. Insurance issues. Long-overdue thank-you notes. Why? I have no idea ... I guess it is because I, too, want life to be easy.

However, if I think about it, this is exactly what I don't want. Life without challenges is life without growth. Peck quotes Benjamin Franklin as saying "those things that hurt, instruct". Looking back at my life, the challenging times were the ones that made me grow most. Moves. Breakups. University and career choices. Arguments with friends and family. Tough bosses. Criticism.

And, quite frankly, if it weren't for problems, life would be ... incredibly dull.

(Take advantage of Amazon's "Search Inside" option and read the first four pages of Peck's book here. They will make your mouth water.)

Images

2007-07-25T06:05:00.000-04:00

As promised...

Steaks at Santa Cruz and a trip to the mountains
A few from Nono and Dominic's pre-wedding part
A Karaoke/Pub Quiz Nerd Fest to say goodbye to Bridge
The first batch from Zita and Domenic's wedding last weekend

Weddings

2007-07-24T11:05:00.000-04:00

It's been a while.

Sometimes life is too full to blog about, and some things are better kept safely stored away in the heart and mind. All I can say is, life remains the trip that I expected it to be, with many unexpected twists and turns, wonderful surprises, and memorable experiences.

In the last few weeks, I have seen two wonderful women get married, one of them from first-row maid-of-honor seats. Both wedding ceremonies were deep, meaningful and a joy to be part of, and I am more convinced than ever that tying the know for life is an ideal that is not only desirable, but realistic.

Nono and Dominic, July 7th 2007

Zita and Domenic, July 21st 2007

Photo post with updates on other events of the past weeks coming soon.

Interlude

2007-06-28T11:35:00.000-04:00

Between preparations for weddings, attempts at researching for the thesis, and spending time with my personal V.I.P.s, there isn't a lot of blogging time.
We spent a spectacular weekend up in the mountains at my uncle Fritz's place a couple of weeks back, but all designated photographers have to far been unable to download and distribute the pictures. There's still hope that I will be able to post a few breathtaking photos from our hike and the evenings of Schnaps-drinking, card-playing, dancing and accordeon-playing in Fritz's living room very soon.

For now I leave you with a spectacular gift idea for people who just don't want to believe that life is beautiful.

Interreligious dialogue

2007-06-20T03:22:00.000-04:00

Last week, the US Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy, Karen Hughes, stopped by in Vienna on her tour through Europe (which, by the way, consisted of three days in Prague and two in Vienna). The purpose of her visit was to promote interreligious dialogue in Europe in the name of the American government.

Hmmm. I know.

Anyway, the editor-in-chief of the Catholic youth magazine I write movie reviews for called me up to ask me whether I wanted to represent the Christian side in an interreligious youth panel discussion held at a mosque in Vienna. Free (kosher) lunch, a chat with Karen Hughes, and national TV - how could I say no?
Narcissism aside, what I was really interested in was the interreligious discussion side of things, and how an such an event when organized, amongst others, by the American Embassy would turn out.

To relieve the suspense, I was a bit disappointed. Sure, there were highlights.
Michael, the Jewish panelist, had never been to a mosque before. In his religion, it is forbidden to enter churches or temples of other religions. He was genuinely touched by the hospitality of the Imam and the Muslim community.
I, for my part, think it might have been the first time ever that Jesus Christ was discussed in a mosque, at least in Vienna, and I enjoyed meeting youth leaders of other faiths.
Thirdly, the fact that a mosque opened its doors to a discussion like this was a sign of readiness for dialogue that people need to see.

However, the whole thing boiled down to the general assertion that there weren't, in fact, many significant differences between the three Abrahamitic religions, and that the ones that existed didn't really matter. I respectfully but firmly disagree. If we are going to leave aside the obvious differences between the religions, what are we left with to discuss?
I am all for connecting on a personal level, becoming more familiar with other faiths, and understanding in a deep and real way the motivations and philosophies behind other forms of worshipping and serving God - because, lets face it, suspicion and hatred feed on ignorance and fear.
But there are things I love about my faith that are central to it, and that other faiths do not share. I am not willing to pretend that these things do not matter, because they are at the very heart of my religion, and - maybe more importantly - an essential part of its beauty and truth. I am sure that Muslims and Jews feel the same, and it would be sad if they didn't, because their faith would mean little to them.

Unfortunately, between speeches on interfaith dialogue and accolades for U/S Hughes, there wasn't much space to talk about this. However, thanks to a comment from the audience (my mother, to be exact), I was able to squeeze in a quote that I think sums it up very well. It is a section from an article by Rabbi Jacob Neusner. He wrote a book called "A Rabbi Talks with Jesus", where he imagines that he listens to Christ's Sermon on the Mount and then enters into an intense dialogue with him, trying to understand his teaching from the perspective of a devout Jew. At the end of the book, he decides that he cannot follow Jesus, and must remain faithful to his religion - but not before he has earnestly tried to understand what Christ said. Here's the quote:

"Both Jews and Christians should find in "A Rabbi Talks with Jesus" the reason to affirm, because each party will locate there the very points on which the difference between Judaism and Christianity rests.What makes me so certain of that outcome? Because I believe, when each side understands in the same way the issues that divide the two, and both with solid reason affirm their respective truths, then all may love and worship God in peace - knowing that it really is the one and the same God whom together they serve - in difference."
(Read the full article. More interesting reading material on the subject: Sandro Magister's take on things and chapter five of Pope Benedict's latest book Jesus of Nazareth)

For those of you who speak German, here's a little video of the event.

And, as always, I am very much interested in your thoughts.

Music

2007-06-13T11:48:00.001-04:00

Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossile to be silent.

-- Victor Hugo

Entertainers or egomaniacs?

2007-06-07T11:13:00.000-04:00

This blog has turned into a quite boring series of rarely entertaining personal updates. I've been thinking: What is the reason for writing a personal blog? Why should one expect one's personal life to be interesting to others? And, lastly - how healthy is it to put one's own, relatively unimportant life at the center of a globally accessible website?

I think it was Mother Teresa who once suggested trying to go for a day without talking about oneself. To me, that seems nearly impossible! Also, I am not sure it is necessary. Still, the line between writing for the entertainment of others and falling into the trap of narcissism is thin.
I started this blog for various reasons - as a creative outlet, a space to play with a language that is not my own, an opportunity to express thoughts and describe incidents worth sharing, and a way to keep my internationally dispersed friends and family updated.
It works, but sometimes a weeklong lack of inspiration or material, combined with the desire to keep readers interested, results in a bunch of entries that are not really worth anyone's time.

So there.

Still, there's news.

The Skypad, version 2.0. It's not quite a clone of its original in NYC, maybe more like a second cousin. However, we are surrounded by luxury - a rooftop deck, views on church steeples and green hills, an open, airy living space, nice little rooms and even gems like wireless internet and an alarm system. Aglai and I have been living here for a week, and we really enjoy it! I also love having mom and Anna over for sunbathing and banana bread, and inviting Matthäus for a quick study break and lunch. Here's the photo tour.

Civil wedding. That "yes" doesn't really count yet, but Nono and Dominic said it anyway at the registry office yesterday morning, and now they are officially Mr. and Mrs. Pott. Scary, but great! Can't wait to see them walking down the aisle (or waiting at the other end, respectively) on July 7th - it's my first gig as maid of honor, and I do think I might have to fight off a few tears.

C'est tout. Any thoughs on the blog issue? Fellow bloggers? Lurkers? Random passers-by? Feel free to gush.

Finale

2007-05-28T17:01:00.000-04:00

Pentecost weekend was spent enjoying a good read, the sun, long conversations in the hammock, fierce badminton matches, a BBQ, long walks, driving lessons, strange movies, the company of Marie, Jan, Bridge and Paula and also the family, which was complete for the first time since late August last year.

If everything goes smoothly and the weather holds up, the movers (yes, I caved) are coming tomorrow, and I should be sleeping in my new room for the first time tomorrow night.

Arabian nights

2007-05-25T03:41:00.000-04:00

Picture a harem chamber somewhere in the depths of an Arabian city. The rhythm of pipes and drums, the swinging of coin belt-adorned hips, hands painted with henna, dimmed lights and the smell of shisha smoke, perfume and camel dung.

This was the setting of Nono's bachelorette party, which went down in our living-room-turned-serail yesterday. There were mountains of food, harem pants, beaded slippers, bare bellies, and a lot of shimmying and hip-shaking. Two harem teams were fighting for camels, which they needed to collect in order to earn the right to get married to Sheikh Dominic (Nono's fiance). The battle was fierce, and there was some haggling in the background, but they fought well and "Harem Aruus Al Nono" won the prize for the bride-to-be. We even had a eunuch to serve us drinks and work the video camera, but his identity will be kept a secret for the sake of his male reputation. All I can say is, he stood his ground like the real man that he is (and he is, don't you worry). [Pictures and videos are still being edited, but expect some fun shots in the near future.]

In other news:

The move still isn't finished, mainly because my bed, wardrobe and desk don't fit into my car. However, chances are that I will be a citizen of Skypad II within the next week.
Anna has returned from India, loaded with bangles, beaded slippers and beautiful fabrics of all sizes and colors. I am realizing that after nine months, it is good to have my sister around again. The stories will take a while to tell, but I am looking forward.
Pentecost weekend will be spent at the Mill with the family, a guest from Portugal and Bridge, a friend from the States who is in Vienna for two months. The weather is great and I can't wait to get away from the humidity and the construction noise.
I PASSED MY LAST EXAM! Just barely made it, but it's over, and now there is only the thesis left to write. Oh, it feels good.

Define "slim"

2007-05-18T02:07:00.000-04:00

Remember I was planning on a slim move? Well, it turns out I am having trouble defining that word. So far the box count is up to four, and only half the room is empty - not counting in two huge Ikea bags of clothes and a pile of shoes. You would think that the eternal jeans-and-t-shirt girl is not part of the shoe collectors' guild. Well, dear friends, think again.
However, in between all that dust and cardboard, moving does provide for a few sentimental journeys: Old journals, photos, post cards, and even a love letter or two.

Wish me luck. Having to hire a moving service equals personal (oh, and financial) defeat.

Changes

2007-05-11T02:14:00.000-04:00

I was planning a big "Hooray, I am done with exams forever" type of post, but alas, it seems that last exam is quite a chunk of work and just doesn't want to be passed. Results are out on the 22nd, lets see what the future holds.

Apart from that, I am starting to prepare for the big move to my very own Skypad in two weeks, which means getting rid of piles of junk that I have been hoarding in my closet and desk for the past seven years. This will be a slim move, and only the necessary things will be taken along. I will probably laugh at the amount of stuff I deem necessary once it comes to carrying boxes up to the fourth floor... Oh well.

Summer is here, and I enjoyed my city once again as I was having lunch in beautiful Volksgarten yesterday with my father and then spent the afternoon lazily walking around downtown with Isabel. Sharifin couldn't believe that a day of laziness made me tired, so we wrapped up the day with a drink or two and cozy deck-chair conversation on the banks of the Danube canal at Strandbar Herrmann. This place reminds me of a few international friends that I spent my evenings with in this same place last year. Now they are gone to faraway places like DC, Sydney and Madrid.

Life changes, all the time.

What counts

2007-05-01T08:11:00.000-04:00

My sister returns from India in three weeks, and recently spent a week in Calcutta with the Missionaries of Charity (aka sisters of Mother Teresa). We didn't know whether to laugh or cry when we read her stories, given that the one thing she absolutely despises are worms, and some of her activities included picking them out of searing wounds... I will spare you further descriptions.

Here is a quote from her report:

"The atmosphere at work is hard to describe. Every day it happened that one of the patients I was feeding simply gave me a hug afterwards. Or that another patient didn't want anything else but to have me sit down next to her for a while and hold her hand. Or that someone suddenly put her hands on my head, mumbled a toothless "God blesssss you" and heartily kissed my hand.
You recieve so much from these people, who have nothing to give but their love and gratitude. It's true what Mother Teresa said: We have not come to the poorest of the poor to give, but to recieve. We need them more than they need us. That hits the nail on the head."

Monks who play punk

2007-04-23T12:59:00.000-04:00

I've written about them already, but now they're getting big publicity: Check out this article on the front page of today's New York Times City section.

I went to the Catholic Underground a few times and was amazed every time at how deep these monks are, while managing to send crowds of 500+ teenagers into fits of laughter. It is not surprising that dozens of men want to join that order each year - they are serious about what they believe in, they live it, and they are so fulfilled by it that it shines through in their eyes and in every word they say.

Images

2007-04-22T06:57:00.000-04:00

Finally, a few photos.

Farewell brunch in New York, March 17th. (more)

Medjugorje, Palm Sunday weekend. (more)

In case you don't know yet, late spring is the best time of year to be in Vienna. So, if you live here, get out your bike and go for a ride. And if you don't, get out ... well ... your credit card and buy tickets.

Catching up

2007-04-16T18:13:00.000-04:00

I've been a real slacker on the blog - but somehow sometimes real life is full enough and does not need constant documentation on the web. Just some quick highlights of the past weeks:

Medjugorje. A little village in Bosnia where the virgin Mary is said to appear. Believe it or don't, but all I know is that this place gives you peace, the type of peace that reaches far deeper than regular relaxation does. I went there with a lot of questions, and came back with only little tiny fragments of the answers I expected, but a general consciousness that I needn't worry.

Easter. Anna, the eternal Easter egg duel champion and passionate chocolate bunny hunter, was sorely missed, and her absence gave the whole thing a bit of a grown-up flavor. She, in the meanwhile, was exploring the jungles of Tamil Nadu with her boyfriend Flo. Nevertheless, we had fun dying eggs with a few cousins, and enjoyed the family, the food and the brilliant weather at the Mill.

New place. In May, I will be moving out of the sibling apartment into a bit of a Skypad of my own. I'll be sharing an amazing little duplex on the roof with Aglai - complete with a balcony to sunbathe (oh yeah) and have breakfasts on lazy Saturday mornings. It still needs some work, but Aglai the styler will surely do a brilliant job.

Life in Vienna is good. New York has its irresistible charms, but there is something about the slow-paced charm of this city that gets me every time. Dodging horse-drawn carriages in the streets, people sitting around lazily in coffee houses, and a view of a beautiful gothic church from the window of the century-old university library... add in real summer weather in April, and try to beat that.

Resurrection

2007-04-08T07:28:00.000-04:00

AS kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame;
As tumbled over rim in roundy wells
Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell’s
Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name;

Each mortal thing does one thing and the same:
Deals out that being indoors each one dwells;
Selves—goes itself; myself it speaks and spells,
Crying What I do is me: for that I came.

I say more: the just man justices;
Keeps grace: that keeps all his goings graces;
Acts in God’s eye what in God’s eye he is—
Christ—for Christ plays in ten thousand places,
Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his
To the Father through the features of men’s faces.

- Gerard Manley Hopkins

Settling in, and out again

2007-03-28T16:30:00.000-04:00

I'm settling in, slowly but surely. Kicked off my thesis project and took my last course ever. Caught up with most of my friends - including Aglae with a big belly (son due in June) and Isabel, the brand new fiancée (wedding in September). Spent the weekend shovelling gravel at the Mill and enjoyed the company of my family, minus Anna who is still working as a nurse in a hospital in Jalandhar, India.
Back to the busy life.

However, Easter is around the corner, and I'll be hopping on a bus to Medjugorje on Friday to spend a long weekend in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by nothing but shrubs, hills, silence and prayer. Given that about 40 of us are going, there will surely be time for fun as well, but I am really looking forward to some peace and quiet, and some quality time with the Man Upstairs.

I'm home

2007-03-23T08:33:00.000-04:00

Back to the city of Käsekrainer, coffee houses, horse carriages, church bells, bakeries, grumpy waiters, and slow pace. The place where walking for five minutes actually gets you someplace. Where your cup of coffee comes with a complimentary glass of water and a silver spoon. Where you can live on thirty euros for almost a week. And where no one wears sweats.

Yet, I am missing things.

The buzz. Skyscrapers. Sushi. Food deliveries. Warm, fuzzy towels fresh from the dryer. Central Park. Diversity. Lights and colors. Ziploc bags. Paying by credit card. Grand Central Station. Dog walkers. Smiles. The sea. Yellow cabs. Conversations with strangers. Free refills. Fireplaces. Friends.

What I don't miss:

Coffee in paper cups. Having your check slammed down the second you swallow your last bite. Overcrowded subways. Trash. Paying for received calls. Dodging deadly umbrellas on crowded sidewalks when it rains. Smoke detectors. Doors that lock "the wrong way". The things they call bread. Taxes. Skim milk.

Funny how it takes a while until home feels like home.

See you, New York

2007-03-19T08:03:00.000-04:00

A fun brunch with 20 friends
St. Paddy's Day parade watching
Conversations by the fireplace
A long walk in the park
Some pub-hopping and Guiness-drinking
Breakfast and brunch, consecutively
Two churches
Coffee at Penelope's
Wiener Schnitzel
Emma
Hugs
And a few tears.

I'm going home, but I'll be back.

Quirks

2007-03-15T18:45:00.000-04:00

New Yorkers are a breed of their own. If you pay a few bucks extra, you can get anything you want here - and directly to your doorstep, too: the paper, food, drinks, groceries, videos, you name it. In fact, I recently saw a sign in a shop window: "I want it all, and I want it delivered."
It gets better, though.

Try nine-year olds at beauty salons, getting their nails done.

Or rain coats, "party collars" and faux fur (!) designer coats for dogs.

But think what you may, citizens of the Big Apple do have a sense of humor, paired with real dedication to the cause. Here are a few examples I stumbled upon myself in the past weeks.

The Naked Cowboy, who stands on Times Square, rain or shine, in white speedos, boots and a Stetson, playing his guitar and posing for tourists.

A young guy I recently spotted on the subway one early Saturday morning, carrying a long black bag on his back. When asked what he was carrying, he pulled out a giant, "custom-made" light saber and demonstrated a few moves he had learned in his light saber fighting club.
Missed that photo op, unfortunately.

A loving fiancee who dedicated a bench in Central Park to her future husband:

And, lastly, a scribbled response to a graffiti statement:

Gotta love it.

On a different note, between trips to Yale, DC and last minute errands, time is flying by. The next blog (including pictures from the past weeks) might already be written from my room in Vienna - hard to believe!

In short

2007-03-06T16:47:00.000-05:00

It's been a while, and a lot has been going on. Just a few snapshots:

Work. I wrapped it up last Wednesday, and it has been a good experience. Met amazing people, made valuable contacts, learned a bit more, and had many opportunities to observe how nonprofits are managed around here, which in many ways seems fundamentally different from the way it is done back home. I've streamlined my questions for my thesis a little, and I am ready to go when I get home. I was spoiled rotten with a tasty Japanese farewell lunch and a Starbucks mug with the NY skyline on it, courtesy of David, the cool program director.

Meetings. One of the great results of my time at Babson and the internship is the fact that I kept meeting people who were interested in performance measurement in nonprofits (my thesis topic) and were willing to share what they know. This morning, I had the chance to meet with Michael Caslin, who teaches a course on Social Entrepreneurship at Babson this semester and works for NFTE, an amazing organization committed to teaching entrepreneurship to disadvantaged youth. I had 20 minutes to get as much as possible out of him, which was tricky, but worth it. I have a few more interesting meetings coming up before I leave the Big Apple on the 19th.

Pia. Her visit significantly raised my museum, opera and concert quota, and I think I have become a bit of a culture buff under her supervision. However, it was the fact that we could meet for coffee or lunch any time we wanted and have quality conversations that was the real treat. After having had an ocean between us for two years, it felt really good to have her around for five weeks. Her, Colin, Bill and I made a fabulous team and had a ton of fun together - these times will be missed! We said goodbye with a suitably Bavarian Weisswurst brunch at Zum Schneider.

Classy. On a whim, Colin and I joined Bill for the Frick Ball last Thursday. The museum was festively decorated, we were served shrimps and champaign by the water fountain and wandered around among the Rembrandts, Bellinis and Holbeins in our tuxedos and evening robes. My H&M and Cairo bazaar combo was not nearly as classy as the designer robes of the other female guests, but it's the attitude that counts, isn't it? Here's the official account - don't take it too seriously.

Now I have a little less than two weeks left to wander around, read, think, see people and wrap up the six months in the land of hot dogs and oversized milk cartons.
They will be well spent.

Fooled me

2007-02-26T14:31:00.000-05:00

People can say what they want, but spring is NOT here. Saturday was nice and sunny, but the wind was freezing and as I walked home yesterday the ground was again covered in snow. It isn't as romantic as it sounds in this city, where snow turns to slush in a matter of minutes and speeding cabs spray you with dirty water.

The weekend was an unusually cultured one, for my standards. On Friday I met Pia at the Guggenheim right after work to get tickets for the "El Greco to Picasso" exhibition on Pay What You Wish Friday. The queue went halfway around the block despite the icy winds, but those who braved it were rewarded with a really good collection of Spanish art from the 15th to the 20th century. We then rested our feet in front of the fireplace at the Skypad, where Colin and Bill were waiting with a great movie and a TV dinner.

Saturday morning Colin and I had brunch with Stew, who put me up on my first night in Boston six months ago. He was visiting for the weekend, and we showed him some Viennese breakfast quality at Sabarsky.
In the evening things became even more Viennese when Pia, the boys and I met for dinner and the Magic Flute at the Met. In my more cultured years, when I was eight or nine years old, I remember lying on my stomach in front of my parents' stereo listening to that opera. The art director, Tony-winner Julie Taymor who also did the set design for Lion King, really managed to turn that old story into a magical fairy tale with her dancing puppets. After three solid hours of Mozart we turned to some live jazz and had a drink at the Carlyle. We brought the age average down by about 50% in that place, but loved it nevertheless.

On Sunday morning we dragged our sleep-deprived bodies out of bed for oatmeal and Eggs Benedict at Balthazar, followed by Mass and an exhibition of a Mexican schizophrenic painter, Martin Ramirez, at the American Folk Art museum. I had never heard about or seen outsider art before, and was pretty impressed by the talent of a poor Mexican immigrant who was locked away in a mental ward most of his life and refused to communicate in any way except through his artwork.

Finally, we put some "pop" into our cultural mix and watched the Oscars with Thierry, who is a film producer and also happens to be a friend of Florian Henckel-Donnersmark, who took home the little golden guy for this year's Best Foreign Film.
There was a lot of cheering and toasting.

It smells like spring

2007-02-23T16:44:00.000-05:00

Colin promised that I wouldn't leave New York without catching a glimpse of spring. It seems like this might be true. The sky is clear, temperatures are rising and I heard birds chirping for the first time as I walked over to the Amish market to pick up some lunch yesterday.

Pia is leaving new York next Sunday, so we need to start some serious planning if we want to cram everything we've wanted to do into these last seven days. And although it's Lent, there's no shortage of things to do: Last night Geoff invited us to his one-room apartment for some real Italian dinner. The official reason was to say goodbye to Jeff, who we then discovered will be returning to New York in three weeks - hopefully in time to send me off with a proper St. Paddy's Day celebration. The good food and company was spiced up by Geoff's musical talent - who needs a stereo when you can have it all live, and of the highest quality! We did some singing, too, which felt good after a long musical hiatus on my side. [Photos]

Plans for the weekend:
Guggenheim Museum - finally
The Magic Flute at the Met tomorrow night
Early-morning breakfast at Balthazar
Maybe a visit to the Russian Bath

Never a dull moment in this town.

Decisions

2007-02-22T13:38:00.000-05:00

decide from Latin decidere "to decide," lit. "to cut off", from de- "off" + cædere "to cut"

With a little more than three weeks to go until I end my six-month stint in the States, and with Lent finally slamming the brakes on the whirlwind that is my life, questions in need of answers are creeping back into my mind. Thesis topics. Career plans. Living arrangements. Friendships. Relationships. Possibilities and options galore, but things need to be decided.

A friend told me the other day that the root of the word "decide" comes from the Latin word caedere - to cut. A decision, consequently, involves finding out what matters and what doesn't, choosing a path and ruling out other options, and sometimes even severing the ties with things that you hold dear.

That's scary, and sometimes I'd rather just stick my head into the sand and have things work themselves out. On the other hand, I was brought into this world for a reason - this is something I strongly believe. I have been given talents and skills that are meant to turn this huge blank canvas that is my life into a gift worthy of God's approval.

The good things is, it doesn't all depend on me. All I need to do is make myself available.

Graphic update

2007-02-20T17:49:00.000-05:00

So much to say, so little time. The weekend was eventful, Mardi Gras is being enjoyed while it lasts, and I still haven't decided on my Lenten resolution.
Until I find time for a proper update, here are the latest photos.
They are a bit scrambled, but I hope the captions do the trick.

Enjoy!

V-Day

2007-02-15T10:12:00.000-05:00

I've always looked at Valentine's Day with a healthy amount of grudge and ridicule. First of all, I am not a big fan of pink. Or hearts, for that matter. Secondly, at least in Europe, it is a holiday that has been embraced by various manufacturers of candy, greeting cards, perfume and underwear more than by ordinary people.

But, as the say, when in Rome, do as the Romans do. Pia and I are no slackers, so we went and cooked up a fantastic meal for our two favorite men (and perpetual hosts, it seems) in the city. We did the Full Monty: shiny red heart garlands hanging from the chandelier, candles, a fire in the fireplace, and some fine Paolo Conte playing in the background.

The menu.
Aperitivo: Bite-sized Bratwurst bits with a heart-shaped dijon mustard dip by the fireplace, with a glass of Riesling.
Ouverture: Grilled goat cheese on a bed of baby spinach leaves, drizzled with honey.
Main course: Linguine with grilled shrimps, zucchini and cherry tomatoes in a sauce of capers, garlic, parmesan and olive oil.
Interlude: A vicious snowball fight on the roof terrace, waltz lessons in front of the fireplace, and Frank Sinatra sing-alongs.
Grande Finale: Kaiserschmarren with apple sauce and a good, hot cup of tea.

I think we feel better about each other now, St.Valentine and I.

Sleepless

2007-02-12T13:34:00.000-05:00

In the City That Never Sleeps, I hardly ever sleep either, it seems.

Thursday found us watching the second part of the six-hour marathon that is "La Meglio Gioventu" (The Best of Youth), certainly one of the best films I have ever seen. Of course, brainy nerds that we are, we had to discuss the movie for another hour after it finished, which meant that we didn't get to bed until 2am.

I dragged myself through Friday at work, perfecting the rest-chin-on-left-hand-and-right-hand-on-mouse nap, and met up with Pia afterwards for a Veggie Burger at Spring Street Restaurant. From there, we headed to the Friday Happy Hour at The HappyCorp, a SoHo design company that opens its doors to those who know about it on Fridays and serves free drinks to a colorful crowd of art students and other interesting fellows. Sascha knew about it and told us where to go, so we met up with him and his Cooper union friends, and also got to know a few other memorable folks. Saad for example, whose name means "happy" in Arabic, and who frequents hipster clubs in Lower Manhattan on weekends. During the week, he works at Deutsche Bank, and I do hope he adapts his look to his corporate surroundings, because I couldn't believe it when he pulled his business card out of the pocket of his oversized white fake fur coat.

Pia, Saad and Sascha

Sascha's roommate Charles and happy party kids

On Saturday morning Pia and I got up early and stood in line for an hour and a half to get last-minute tickets for Paco de Lucia at the Carnegie Hall. Pia's friend Mark de Young joined us and we warmed up with New York's best hot chocolate and soft boiled eggs at Le Pain Quotidien before Pia and I took off to take advantage of the good weather and walk across Brooklyn Bridge. Making your way across a 500m long wooden walkway with hundreds of cars passing through underneath you is exciting enough, but having the Manhattan Skyline as a backdrop is quite a sight to see. (Photos to follow)

The Passion Fruit margharita that Bill treated us to before the concert that night felt very Sex and the City (mainly because my jeans and cowboy boots lost the battle against the serious Prada and Gucci action that was going on around us), and from there we climbed up to the dizzying heights of the Carnegie Hall gallery to see the world's best Andalusian guitarist work his fingers. Spicy (!) Buffalo wings and milk shakes at Brooklyn Diner concluded the night out, and the gang said goodbye to Mark and Sam and retreated to the Skypad, where we watched the remaining hour and a half of La Meglio Gioventu before collapsing into bed.

On Sunday we finally introduced Pia to Central Park, snuck into the Mandarin Hotel Bar to get a nice view of the park from above, and saw a (rather disappointing) exhibition on Slavery in New York and 9/11 relics at the New York Historical Society.

Needless to say, that night I slept very, very well.

Memorable

2007-02-08T09:18:00.000-05:00

If my weekdays were movies, yesterday would have won the Oscar. It was one of those days that finds you lying in bed at night, feeling like you have witnessed something fundamental.

I am currently interning with the Scholar Rescue Fund, an organization that gives grants to scholars and academics who are being persecuted in their countries for different reasons: "Modern" views, religion, ethnicity, involvement with international agencies, human rights defense ... you name it. Since its inception in 2002, the program has rescued 110 scholars from 37 different countries and has found them places to teach in great schools all over the world. Recently, however, for obvious reasons, there has been a sudden surge in the number of Iraqi applicants. We are working on creating a report on academic repression worldwide, and I have been studying the life stories of these 110 grantees for the past month and a half and compiling data, trying to find patterns or connections between the situation of these brilliant and brave people and the promblems in their countries.

Yesterday we presented our findings to the SRF board of directors, a diverse group of interesting people: the former Dean of the University of Pittsburgh Medical School, the former senior VP of the Ford Foundation, the director of scholarships of the Open Society Institute, the President of the International Rescue Committee , and so on. The star of the evening, however, was Donnie George, the former director of the Iraq National Museum in Baghdad, who was all over the news when people looted the museum in the early days of the war and carried away or destroyed many invaluable cultural treasures. He was targeted by militias for cooperating with the US, had to flee his country, now teaches in the States and gave a little report on the situation of scholars in Iraq. I tell you, it is something else when you hear these stories first hand. (Read a great Washington Post Op-Ed piece by another of our Iraqi grantees here.)

After an afternoon of meetings, I changed into comfy jeans to meet Pia and a group of WYA interns for Polish food and a visit to the boys of Grassroots Films, an independent film company in Brooklyn run by a bunch of guys, partly coming from difficult backgrounds. They live together in a house and make amazing stuff. Most of them are Catholics, and their movies are pretty powerful. They are now working on their first full-length movie called The Human Experience and showed us some test shots and a teaser. I'd heard a lot about them since they are friends with guys from YOU!Mag, so it was great to meet them in person. We realized that we had quite a few common friends! Small world.

And, finally, I leave you with a quote I have been thinking about a lot lately: "Excellence means asking of oneself more than others do." - Jose Ortega y Gassett
Have I ever really strived for excellence? Is exceeding the expectations of others really all there is to excellence? Or is it more about finding and taking up that unique place in the world that I am meant to fill?

"If you are what you should be, you will set the world ablaze."
- Pope John Paul II.

Ice Age III

2007-02-05T16:49:00.000-05:00

I am a proud citizen of an Alpine nation, but this past weekend, I have had to discover that it gets much, much colder in other parts of the world.

Plans for a Friday night tour of the East Village literally froze mid-planning, so Geoff, Jeff, Mark, Pia and I spent the entire evening at Rue B instead, guzzling down several glasses of wine and being slightly surprised by the stiff bill that ensued. Nevertheless, a little jazz band that played on an impressive 3-by-3-ft. "stage" and good conversation about hidden New York gems, bird-shaped cities, and marriage made it worth while.

Saturday was kicked off with scrambled eggs and much-needed advice at Cafe Sabarsky with Colin, followed by an oh-so-freezing Staten Island Ferry ride with Pia. After nearly being blown off the boat, we braved icy winds and made our way up to Bleecker Street via Ground Zero and Wall Street. With no feeling left in our hands, toes and faces, we stumbled into Caffe Vivaldi for a hot chocolate, delicious carrot cake and a roaring fire. The day ended with coq au vin and apple pie (courtesy of Scott and Morag) at the Skypad. Due to bachelor-pad-induced lack of furniture, I sat on an upside down laundry hamper.

On Sunday we had brunch at Le Pain Quotidien, went to Mass and after being treated to delicious West Side sushi by my new landlady Alexandra, I spent the rest of the afternoon writing letters and hanging out in front of the fireplace at the Skypad with Bill, Colin and Pia. The boys didn't seem to mind the interruption of their habitual weekend silence, and we wrapped up the weekend with a good movie and snippets of the Super Bowl, accompanied by chips and salsa, and the expert commentary of Bill.

A runny nose, sore throat and perpetually cold feet remain as reminders of Saturday's arctic expedition, but I already have new things to look forward to, like Standing Room tickets to Bellini's I Puritani at the Met tonight, with Anna Netrebko. Pia, the culture vulture, got us tickets, and one of the many benefits of her presence in New York is that she is forcing me to expand my cultural horizons beyond movie theaters, restaurants and jazz bars.

Once Upon A Time In The West

2007-02-02T09:31:00.000-05:00

I always knew New York was diverse, but I wasn't aware of the fact that every neighborhood doesn't just look, it also feels completely different. I am lucky to be experiencing three very different environments during my stay here: First the Upper East Side, then Brooklyn Heights, and now the Upper West Side. I've moved all the way northwest right next to the beautiful Columbia campus, and am staying with Alexandra, a friend of my uncle's, and her son Antony in the former nanny's room. The area is full of gigantic, palace-like buildings, some of which are student dorms (!) and some faculty accomodation, like the house I live in. Walking along the breathtaking facades and peeking into lobbies with thick carpets, brass lamps and uniformed doormen makes me gasp, but actually walking in to one of these buildings is something I haven't yet gotten used to (and hope I never will).

After over a month of squeezing my belongings into a little leftover closet space or piling them up on top of dressers or chairs, it feels good to have my own private space for the last six weeks of my stay. I still expect to hear a cat snarling and hissing from time to time, but gladly I am only hallucinating...!

Pia arrived on Monday and it is great to have her around. How she manages to have a choice of three different invitations per night within a day of her arrival puzzles me completely - but I guess I'd better hang on to that girl, she is popular! So far we've done a little sightseeing around Times Square and Midtown, had delicious mojitos, and went to see a screening of The Mission at the MoMa Film Museum yesterday. Ennio Morricone composed the soundtrack and was supposed to give an introduction, but he had some sort of trouble with a concert and didn't show up. Still, I am enjoying the fact that he could have. Everything is possible in this city.
To top things off, Colin, Bill and Thierry treated us to some palate boggling Chinese food afterwards, complete with a frog on a log carved out of vegetables as a table decoration.

Plans for the weekend include some Guggenheim art and music tonight, a dinner at the Skypad tomorrow, and a little more sightseeing in between. My time in New York is halfway over, and I think I need to start making a To Do List to make sure I've seen all I've wanted to see.
On the other hand, my New York experience is so much more about people than sights and places - and that is exactly the way I like it.

Bye Cats, Hello West Side

2007-01-28T15:30:00.000-05:00

It's time again. Three weeks have gone by so quickly, and I am moving out of the Cat Place tomorrow. Lets say we never exactly became friends, those kitties and I. They tolerated me (mostly), and I tolerated them (mostly). Diplomatic relations deteriorated when they tried to nibble on Amy and started ignoring the fact that they had a litter box, leaving me little fecal tokens of "appreciation" all over the apartment at regular intervals. In total, however, I think the operation was a success, given that they are alive and healthy and I had a wonderful place to stay for three weeks. I will miss breakfast treats from Tazza, baba ganoush from Sahadi's and the skyline, but I'm ready to explore the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

By the way, I have finally uploaded photos from the past weeks.
Last days in Boston and first days in NYC
More Christmas with the Morans
A tour of Brooklyn Heights
The week with Amy
I've been lazy with the camera, so many things have not been documented. Nevertheless, it's a nice little overview of what we've been up to lately.

Pia arrives tomorrow night, so the fun goes on. It will be great to have her around - many a fun plan is in the making, some of which involve Woody Allen, music, history, and - of course - food.

Mornings in the City

2007-01-24T09:25:00.000-05:00

Few things are as satisfying as managing to roll your tired body out of bed early in the morning to watch the city wake up. Amy is visiting this week, and among many other amusements, we got up at 6am today to have breakfast at Balthazar with Colin before heading off to work (or sightseeing, respectively). Giant bowls of latte, French toast with bacon, eggs Florentine and the world's best waffles with berry sauce surely put a spring in your step - especially if it is topped off with laughter and a sunny day in the Village.

Other activities of the week included

brunch at Robin des Bois, a funky little antique-store-gone-breakfast-joint in Brooklyn, followed by a walk through the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens and a quick stopover at the B'klyn Museum
long, cozy hours in front of the fireplace at the Skypad (Colin and Bill's apartment), drinking tea and wine, snacking away on crackers, watching movies and listing to arias on top volume with the lights turned down
a high-quality conversation with dad during a quick lunch break over an Amish Market sandwich. There's nothing like a reality check with your parents to help get your thoughts organized.
a spectacular three-course home-cooked dinner with the world's best babaganough from Sahadi's and some tasty wines
massive amounts of dark and light ale at McSorley's Old Ale House, New York City's oldest bar with the boys, Amy and Papi and watching the State of the Union address in the company of Lower-Manhattan Bush haters
a tour of Cooper Union by Sascha
a Brussels reunion with Phil and Jeff tonight - of course, we will go play pool, ghetto-style. Just like old times at our Chaussee de Wavre intern flat.

Amy and Papi take off tomorrow - it's been great to have them around! One thing I've realized, though, amongst all the fun of having visitors: I am blessed with a group of great friends right here in New York, and they are really making every minute of my stay worth while.

[For those who are impatiently awaiting photos: I hope to finally upload them on the weekend!]

Quiet times

2007-01-16T16:10:00.000-05:00

Not much news to report ... I had a quiet long weekend filled with brunches, lunches and dinners, plays, movies and house cleaning.
For a summary of current events, see the new sidebar on the right: Current Obsessions.

Off to another meeting with the billionaire. Maybe I can score an invite to the Virgin Islands? I could use some sun.

This and that

2007-01-13T09:50:00.000-05:00

The night after I bragged about having had a quality cat moment with Biggins, I forgot him outside. Thank God the patio is closed off and he couldn't run away, and the temperatures were cold, but bearable - so he survived, and seems happy as ever. Phew.
My sister has arrived in India. She talks about wild monkeys, cows and elephants on the street, and curry for every meal, but she seems to like it. The hospital she is working at is not quite up to the Western standards of hygiene she is used to - but I know her, she'll find her place in a matter of days.
On Thursday night I met up with Stephanie, a grade school buddy of mine from DC whom I haven't seen in 16 years!! She lives in a funky little place on Avenue C in the Lower East Side, and we had a read Bavarian beer at Zum Schneider and talked like we'd known each other for years. Which, technically isn't true... it's funny when the last memory you have of someone is a little blond seven-year-old with pigtails, and suddely you're faced with a grown woman - and I mean grown, she is about 6ft tall!
Less than a week until Amy arrives! We met up in Paris last time, and New York it is this time! Any suggestions where to go next? (Preferably including cheap flights and free accomodation.)
PIA IS COMING TO NEW YORK! She will be here for the entire month of February. We have seen each other three times in the past two years, so this will be great. And, to make things more extraordinary (only few of you will appreciate this): She will be working for my friend Bill Grace and living in the WYA house. Full circle.
Did I mention I love New York? Here's another reason why: This city makes you fall in love with it over and over again. Once you think you've found out about the best spots, you come across more, and they are completely different, but equally fantastic.

Off I go. Time to deliver on my promise to get fit and go for a run. And after that, I think some book browsing and shop exploring in SoHo might be in order. This weekend will be a good one. Especially because, thanks to Martin Luther King, Monday is off.

Pet problems

2007-01-10T20:07:00.000-05:00

We've had a number of pets in the course of my life:

1) Goldfish that my sister and I won at a birthday party in Washington. We brought them home in a plastic bag, and for lack of a fish tank we put them in a metal bowl. It must have had a negative effect on their sanity, because soon after my mother had bought an incredibly fancy aquarium, Jacob, the largest of the fish (and mine) bit the tail fins off all the other ones, and they died. I wanted to flush him down the toilet, but we released him into the Potomac River instead. I secretly hoped he would be eaten by a large mean predator.

2) A turtle "shell" that we found on a tennis court, and which suddenly came to life on the ride home. We kept "Snappy" until she started eating my mom's flowers, and then returned her to where we had found her. I had secretly hoped to be able to keep her over winter, because you have to put those animals into the fridge so that they can hibernate. Who would want to miss that??

3) Several rabbits that my parents bought for us at the Budapest market. They came with a bag of food and were meant to be slaughtered for Easter. We gave the bunnies away to a farmer each winter and got one of their children the next spring. Years went by before our parents told us that they actually were slaughtered by those farmers and they just bought new ones for us each year. That was a worse trauma than finding out about the Easter Bunny.

4) Parakeets. We got two and called them Max and Moritz. Moritz didn't make it past the winter, so we got Max a beautiful yellow lady called Citronella for company. We had to leave them in Hungary for quarantine reasons, and I believe they lived happily ever after and hatched many eggs.

Anyway. Today I had to face the facts: I am not a cat person. I mean, Biggins and I did have a short bonding moment during Seinfeld tonight when he climbed onto my lap and started purring. But stepping on their squeaky toy mice scares the living hell out of me, and I am already royally sick of cleaning litter boxes and removing cat hair from the bathtub, keyboard, my clothes, my bed... everywhere.
Feline fans, I am sorry - but this is not for me.

25 and famous

2007-01-08T11:59:00.000-05:00

So, I am officially on the wrong side of 25 now. The B-day was kicked off last night with linguine ai frutti di mare, STOMP at the Orpheum and dessert and Marsala wine at Perbacco.
This morning, I found out that it didn't even take me a week to make it into the New York Times.

Also, my sister got on a plane to India today. She is a nurse and will be working at a hospital there until May - it's a big adventure! Now my parents officially have children in three continents. I guess it must be genetic.

Life in the Apple

2007-01-07T15:38:00.000-05:00

It seems the New York lifestyle has swallowed me whole, because even though I have technically been here for more than two weeks, I haven't yet had the chance to properly report on my goings-on.

Upper East. For the past 10 days I've been a real uptown girl, mingling with the rich and the beautiful in Manhattan's Upper East Side while staying with my aunt in an 87th street apartment. I've found the not-so-rich and the reasonably pretty more appealing, though, and preferred the beaming smile doorman Jose greeted me with every night to the snobbish sneer of the locals, who seem to be daily customers of the countless nail and hair studios on 1st avenue.

On the other hand, the proximity of the Park, good friends, evening walks along festively lit Fifth and Park Avenues and great restaurants made it worth every minute.

High Society. New Years Eve was spent sipping champaign and nibbling on caviar at the University Club's black tie New Year's party ... it was a first for me, but luckily the people I was with didn't take themselves half as seriously as the platinum-blonde face-lifted crowd. We had fun and enjoyed pretending to be real big spenders for a night.

Interesting encounters. I started work on January 2nd, and so far it has been rather uneventful. However, I did get to accompany the director to a meeting with a New York billionaire who owns several buildings in Gramercy Park and among other things has a giant pillar-shaped crystal chandelier hanging in the staircase of his five-story townhouse. During the meeting he had a quick chat on the phone with Senator Leahy whom he asked a quick fundraising question... His story is American Dream de luxe: He came to the States as the son of poor German immigrants after WWII and, after working as a psychiatrist for a decade, made a fortune in the metal trading business. Today, he owns an island in the Virgin Islands. Charmed life?

The Cat Place. Yesterday I left Manhattan to start my catsitting stint in Brooklyn Heights. My feline room mates are rather quiet and a bit odd (Biggins will only let you pat his head, and Mistopheles drinks from the tap in the bathtub), and I have to get used to the smell of cat food, but so far they are still alive and well. Lets hope it goes on that way, because I am really not the world's best pet sitter!
The place is great, a quiet duplex in a great area with a cute kitchen, room for visitors, a computer, TV and a nice DVD collection. The neighborhood reminds me of London - quiet streets, beautiful brick townhouses, fun little bars and cafes, and a breathtaking view of the skyline from the Esplanade. I can't find my data cable, so here are some photos I nicked from the internet that look a lot like what I saw today.

Manhattan skyline from the Esplanade

Quiet streets

Breathtaking views on to the water

This is getting way too long, so just a few past and future highlights to top it off:

Catholic Underground: Ever seen monks in grey skateboarding, rapping, playing the saxophone and sending 500+ people into fits of roaring laughter? They are real, and they run a really fun youth event every first Saturday of the month. You won't believe it unless you've seen it. Yesterday, they also screened an amazing movie called Bella. A must-see that won the people's choice award at the Toronto Film Festival 2006!
Pre-birthday brunch at Cafe Sabarsky with real Viennes hot chocolate this morning with my few NY friends, followed by a stroll through the Gallery to take in some Klimt and Schiele.
Visits from three of my VIPs: Both Amy and dad are coming for a week at the end of January, and it looks like Pia will be spending an entire month here in February!! Can't wait.
A surprise tonight ... have no idea what it is, but I have to be at Union Square at 6.15.

Happy New Year!

2007-01-03T11:05:00.000-05:00

Christmas down South

2006-12-30T13:41:00.000-05:00

A visit to the States wouldn't be complete without a visit to the South. So, I left Yankee Country to celebrate Christmas with the Moran clan in Greensboro, North Carolina. It was a lot of food, a lot of family, a lot of fresh air, and a lot of fun. I think I managed to evade anything deep-fried, but we did have delicious corn bread with our turkey on Christmas Day.

My incredible stroke of good luck was briefly interrupted when I found out that US Airways had somehow managed to move my departure flight to the 25th of December instead of the 24th, but after quite a long while spent on the phone and some persuasion, I managed to fly out at 9pm on Christmas Eve. Despite my worries it actually felt quite good to get dressed up and go to Christmas Vespers on my own, and I couldn't help but chuckle to myself as I was sitting in the waiting area at La Guardia airport munching on my Christmas Dinner, which consisted of a slice of half-cold pizza on a paper plate. I got to Greensboro just in time to help Colin and Chris out with some last-minute gift wrapping, and by the time everyone was up on Christmas morning, it felt like I had been there from the start.

Now I am counting down the days to the new year in Manhattan, enjoying museums, brunches at real Viennese cafes, jogs in the Park, and the like. Plans for tomorrow include black tie (not for me), a fancy dress (yes, for me), and some real Manhattan sophistication.
Lets see how I will like it.

It's His birthday

2006-12-23T13:56:00.000-05:00

I have landed in New York, and still can't quite believe it. I often catch myself smiling unbelievingly at the fact that those streets and avenues, the yellow cabs, the sky scrapers and the buzz of this city will be my daily life for the next two months.

When I arrived on the good old Chinatown bus on Thursday, I dragged my two super-heavy suitcases into a cab and went up to the Austrian Mission to the UN, where my aunt works. I was introduced to the entire office and found that I know the families of two of the employees there! I was feb Austrian pastries and we later got a ride in the ambassador's car up to where my aunt lives. When I emailed my father about it, his only reply was: "Don't get used to it. This is not how things usually work." I know, dad. But it seems like everything has been working out incredibly well so far! I am a lucky lady, and I better show myself worthy of all this good fortune.

That night, while I was having dinner I ran into a girl I randomly met in Pittsburgh while I was visiting Christian. She is the girlfriend of his next-door neighbor, and she is a waitress at that restaurant! I couldn't believe how small the world is.

Other NY activities included overhearing two comedy show producers discussing their concepts over coffee while I was having breakfast in an Upper East Side Bakery, lunch in K(orea)-Town with Meaghan and Dennis who also came over from Boston, a little Christmas sightseeing at the Rockefeller Center and Macy's Department Store on 34th Street, Starbucks with Scott, and a little Christmas (window) shopping in SoHo.

As I am taking off tomorrow and will probably be without an internet connection for a while, I wanted to wish you all a very merry Christmas, good times with your loved ones, and some peace and quiet to think about what it this miracle means that actually happened two thousand years ago. I will be without my family for the first time this year, but instead of being sad, I am more grateful than ever to have each and every one of them in my life. There's nothing like a family to keep you grounded, inspire you, help you along, annoy the heck out of you, and love you to pieces. And I've realized that it is the greatest Christmas gift of all to call such a family my own.

Movie star!?

2006-12-20T18:54:00.000-05:00

I was walking back from the T today after a long day of Christmas shopping at the Prudential Center Mall with Lysiane. It was already dark, and as I turned into a badly lit street, I heard footsteps behind me. I walked a little faster, but the footsteps followed, and when I glanced behind me I saw a man a few yards away. I decided to cross over to the other side of the street to see if he would follow me, silently hoping he wouldn't. As I stepped off the sidewalk, I heard his voice, with a strong Indian accent.
"Excuse me?"
I didn't answer.
"Excuse me, lady?"
"Yes?"
"Are you the one who appears every week on the TV screen?"
"No, I don't appear on any TV screens", I replied.
Disappointed, he turned around and walked off.

Meet the gang (Episode II)

2006-12-19T21:17:00.000-05:00

I know, I know. Babson is over, but I will not leave Boston without introducing the rest of the gang to you. There are more people, of course, but these are among my favorites and constant companions on campus.

Everyone, meet...

Lysiane (left):
This Swiss chick is all about mountains, chocolate, and cheese fondue, but there is so much more to her. Her laugh attacks are incredibly contagious, and she likes to blame the fact that she laughs about jokes about 5 minutes after everyone else on her nationality ("I am Swiss, we are a bit slow!"). She has the best accent - a mixture of Swiss German and French - when she speaks both German and English, and really enjoys catching up on the latest gossip. Her and the Spanish girls are inseparable, and she even seems to understand when they speak Catalan.

Tere (right):
Where do I start? She is blonde and blue-eyed, but a real Spanish live wire. However, she is very strict about not being called Spanish - she is Catalan. Very Catalan ... the type that demonstrates on the streets against the Spanish government. Nevertheless, when she hears flamenco music, she starts clapping her hands, and her eyes sparkle and she can't help but dance. She developed a very close relationship to her school-supplied laptop, to the extent that she almost burst into tears when she had to return it at the end of her stay. Tere had the hardest time getting used to being away from home - but no one cried more than her when she left. Oh, did she cry. For three straight days.

Antonio:
The best-dressed man on campus, he never left his dorm room without a fresh button-down shirt and polished shoes. He did buy a Babson hoodie halfway through term, but even that looked like right out of a Barbour ad with his impeccable side part, sweater tied on his shoulder and his clean looks. He is the ideal son-in-law by daytime, but was also the biggest club-hopper of our little group by night. When someone commented that his hairdo was kind of like mine, he only replied: "Well, my side part is straighter." How right he is.

Aaron:
He's from El Paso, Texas, and he likes to tell you about it. If he weren't such a sweetie, I would have really been taken aback by some of his stories. For example, he and his friends sometimes hang out at execution tailgate parties: When someone on death row is executed, people bring out their grills and have a BBQ party in the prison parking lot. YIKES! On the other hand, he supplies half the college with original Texan beef jerky, calls his girlfriend every night and spends his Tuesday and Thursday afternoons driving inner-city grade school kids to fun afternoon activities. He is one of the few transfers that just stuck with the exchange student group. And he's really taking on the cold New England weather - the school ice rink is his favorite hangout spot!

Ee-ling:
The other Ozzie apart from Cameron, he is all smiles - I don't think I have seen him grumpy once in four months. He is always there for a chat in the library or the dining hall, and is true to his Asian heritage by learning Japanese (although he is Chinese). We didn't see much of him during the weekend, unfortunately, because he visited his girlfriend who was on exchange at NYU.

Now you have a little taste of the people who surrounded me every day. They will be missed - in fact, I find it hard to get used to one-on-one dinners in quiet kitchens and the lack of noise on the hallways. Campus life has its disadvantages, but one of my favorites was always being able to find someone to talk to wherever I went. Good thing I will have two cats to keep me company in January!

Tomorrow is my last day in Boston, and I am sad to leave. The past days have been filled with errands, last coffees and meals with leftover Babson exchange students, walks around beautiful corners of Beantown (and taking pictures), and cookie baking and movie watching with Meaghan.
And on Thursday, I will be off to the next part of my American adventure.

Wrapping up Babson

2006-12-16T19:21:00.000-05:00

Last class ... check.
Last exam ... check.
Last brunch at Trim dining hall ... check.
Last party with the exchange students ... check.
Last walk around campus ... check.
Last look at my empty dorm room ... check.

All my belongings are packed into two suitcases and a backpack, and I am now in Boston in Meaghan's apartment. I can't believe these three and a half months have passed by so fast, it seems like yesterday that I arrived. Life on campus wasn't always wonderful, and there were times when I was fed up and wanted to get out. But looking back now, I have learned a whole lot and have been priviledged to meet people who have really shaped me.

And, well, I guess the best proof that this all meant something is my achy heart.

Mouth open

2006-12-12T09:26:00.000-05:00

What is this? Did Santa's sleigh capsize right above Babson Campus and pour all his presents out on me by accident? Only days after the accomodation problem for January was solved, I received a wonderful e-mail from my future landlord for February! A friend of my father's cousin (thank God for family connections), who offered me her guest room in the Upper West Side for the rest of my stay in New York.
Julian only said "God loves you." I'm not sure he knows how right he is. (And neither do I.)

Wackin' down the pins

2006-12-09T10:14:00.000-05:00

We're foreigners. Right? We need to be introduced to American culture. Right? Right.
Braving temperatures in the low twenties (Fahrenheit, which means below zero Centigrade), Reagan, Brooke, Lysiane, Forbes and I spent the evening at the bowling alley. And it's not just any bowling alley - it's full-blown disco bowling, visuals and all. Which, of course, doesn't keep bowling leagues in their oh-so-stylish shirts from showing off their talent there.
The only thing I wondered is ... why do you need videos of scantily clad women movin' to the beats to distract you from scoring a strike? (I, for my part, chose to ignore them. And I did score a strike... though I tend to think it was more of an accident.)

Knock on wood!?

2006-12-07T17:15:00.000-05:00

In German we have a saying: "It's the stupid who are lucky." If that is true, I must be very, very, very stupid.

Only hours after I received the final OK that my visa had been extended, I got an email that changed my still-sort-of-doubtful living situation in New York completely. For the entire month of January, I will be house-sitting at the Brooklyn Heights apartment of an employee of the Austrian Mission to the UN and taking care of her two cats - entirely for free!
Specifics: A one-bedroom duplex with a small patio (OK, maybe not the coolest thing in January), gym and laundry room in the building. The subway stop is a six minute walk away, and I can be at the office in 30 minutes.
And, best of all, I only have a couple of blocks to walk to see this:

If I were superstitious, I'd run and find some wood to knock on. Instead, while sort of waiting for something to go wrong, I'll just shake my head at a completely undeserved stroke of good fortune.

PS: I just came back from the Babson Midnight Breakfast. It is held from 10pm until midnight right before the finals, professors in aprons serve pancakes and waffles, and there is a raffle for massages and even a full semester tuition. It was packed, and I thought it was a great idea. This is the kind of stuff I will miss when I get home.

Small worm in a big .... Apple

2006-12-06T11:27:00.000-05:00

Finally, the news. I got an internship with the IIE Scholar Rescue Fund and will become one of the many people in business suits that fight their way through the crowds on the sidewalks of Midtown Manhattan... at least for two months. The negotiations class I took this term came in handy, so I will even make enough money to pay for a little room and a bit of fun here and there.
As always, I did everything last minute, and I still can't believe that I actually managed to get a job, a salary, a visa extension and a place to stay in a little less than two weeks. You'd think God would teach me a lesson sooner or later and have me run into a wall, but no ... he's being very patient. So are my poor parents, New York friends and International Student Advisors whom I have put to work for me. Boy, am I lucky.

Other news tidbits:

School. I pulled the first (and possibly last) all-nighter of my college career when we spent all of Sunday until the wee hours of the morning finishing a business plan that was due at 7.45am on Monday morning. I handed in my philosophy research paper, and it felt like giving birth (I think). We spent hours putting together power point presentations in the past week, and hanging out in the library until midnight is starting to feel pretty normal. But instead of losing it, I am actually having fun, and I am really enjoying these last weeks on campus.
GEEK.

Eggnog latte. They all rave about it, so I needed to try. The Vienna Starbucks doesn't do seasonal drinks that much, so I had to take the chance. John, whom I met at a WYA conference in Vienna last May, was in the area, so we drove down to the cute little downtown area of Wellesley for this world premiere. It tasted pretty good, and it definitely gets you into that holiday mood. The full moon, the freezing cold and the Christmas decorations probably helped.

Travel plans. Since I will miss out on Austrian Christmas with the family this year, I am putting together a nice little trip to make up for it. Planned destinations include: A few more days in Boston with a Duck Tour and ice skating on Frog Pond, cookie baking, Christmas letter writing and hanging out with my Boston and Babson friends. A short stopover in New York, because I will not miss out on the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree this year! Christmas in Greensboro, North Carolina, with the Moran clan. A post-Christmas reunion with Jean-Pierre and Marthe-Marie Casey in DC. New Years plans are yet to be made, but it is looking good.

And thanks to joytothehurled's FFP Holiday mix, I even have the soundtrack to go with it.
Those Americans really know how to put you into Christmas mode.

Chances

2006-12-01T00:51:00.000-05:00

One should not talk about things that are not yet sure. And I won't. All I will say is that things are lining up for what looks like another great adventure. Everything is still up in the air, but I am starting to see more clearly, and God willing (yeah, really) I will have a sweet deal on my hands in a couple of days.

In other news, I find myself smiling a whole lot more these days than in the past months. Life at Babson, as strange as it may sound, has been quite a challenge - finding my way in a world that's not my own, with people who think differently from me, and decisions that are only mine to make. Nevertheless, I am enjoying life a lot, despite the long hours spent writing essays, and the pressure of all upcoming decisions.

I care about people here, I am learning, and I am glad that the old me is back, the one that sometimes looks up at the sky and smiles, knowing that there's someone up there with a very good sense of humor.

Jet set

2006-11-26T08:08:00.000-05:00

I am sitting at gate 14 at JFK aiport in New York. "Feliz Navidad" is blasting from the speakers, interrupted by frequent passenger calls and announcements. With my laptop on my lap (what a fitting name) and connected to a wireless hotspot, I feel very jet set.
A 4am alarm clock this morning ended a great 10-day Thanksgiving break, and I am heading back to Babson, bracing myself for two more weeks of non-stop stress and a couple of all-nighters before I wrap up my semester.
Photos are still on various cameras (my own was left behind in DC and will be sent to me soon), but while I am waiting for uploads I will give you a little report of my whirlwind trip.

1st stop: New York, comme d'habitude.
Refusing to spend money on a cab, I dragged my big suitcase through the pouring rain in Chinatown. After being soaked from head to toe, I gave in and took the subway to Bleecker Street. This time I shared a (queen size) bed with Sascha for lack of his neighbor's mattress. When we were lying next to each other and I told him "This is what it must feel like to be married", he did not seem amused. He graciously offered to build a wall of books between us for propriety reasons, but I declined. We're both skinny people, and the night ended up being quite comfortable.
On Friday morning I donned my business suit and zipped around various Manhattan locations all day, interviewing for internships. I think they went well, and decisions will be made this week. Walking into various gigantic corporate buildings and having your bags checked several times made me a bit nervous. But stopping for a take-out cup of coffee on Dag Hammaskjold Plaza does feel cool.

2nd stop: Silence
Nevertheless, I was glad to change into my jeans that night and hop on a train with Colin for a two-day retreat at "the nuns" in upstate New York. The days were quiet, peaceful, and mainly spent in the chapel, going for walks along little streams, reading and drinking tea.

3rd stop: Washington D.C.
Walking all over the Mall, stopping over in the National Air and Space Museum and the Museum of Natural History (where we used to spend many a Sunday exploring space shuttles and skeletons), and finding our old house on Massachusetts Avenue brought back many memories. I hadn't been back since we moved away in 1991, which makes it fifteen years! The house looked a lot smaller, our favorite climbing trees and sand box were gone, but it's funny how you can still remember things so vividly after such a long time.

4th stop: Pittsburgh
After Christian has visited me in Cairo and Vienna, it was about time to check out his 'hood. He and his family took me on a tour of everything from his old school and office to major Pittsburgh sites like the Cathedral of Learning and Mount Washington. We had a huge Thanksgiving dinner with 18 people, watched videos from our time in Spain and Egypt, hit a few bars in South Side, and even got to see a hockey game - Pittsburgh Penguins vs. Boston Bruins! I decided to forsake my temporary hometown and cheer for the Pens ... and they lost. Memorable tidbits of American culture included: Pancakes at Pamela's Diner, pumpkin pie, turkey carving, glimpses of a tailgate party, watching football on TV, standing for the national anthem in the stadium, cheerleaders, rides in Christian's Mustang, and many more.

I feel refreshed and ready to take on that last bit of school. It will be quite a challenge to juggle papers, exams, presentations, visa extensions, room search in NY (any ideas?), and saying goodbye to Babson, but I'll hang in there and get it over with.

Alright, we're boarding. Photos coming soon!

Turkey time

2006-11-16T00:14:00.000-05:00

Over the next week, most people will be worried about THIS...

I say, bring it all on - the big bird, the gravy, the sweet potatoes, the pumpkin pie.
I will be back online in ten days or so with many stories to tell.
Happy Thanksgiving!

Le weekend en photos

2006-11-14T08:28:00.000-05:00

(I just realized that I've been going increasingly international with my post titles lately.)
Anyway, weeks are increasingly filled with work as there are only three (!!) weeks left of the term if you count out Thanksgiving holidays. This means papers, group meetings, assignments and a lot of desk time.

Last weekend, the J/Ge(o)ffs from New York came to visit. I met both of them through the World Youth Alliance while I was interning in Brussels in the summer of 2005, and they hooked me up with Meaghan here in Boston. We had a great time hanging out by the banks of the Charles on a beautiful autumn day, cooking Kaesnockerln (Austrian food) and going out for salsa and swing dancing. Here's the photo coverage:

Get Your Own! |

Plans for the Thanksgiving break: An interview for a possible internship in NYC on Friday (keep all available limbs crossed!), a little retreat, a trip to Washington D.C. to revisit memories from my childhood fifteen years ago (I feel old), and a few days in Pittsburgh, visiting Christian and spending Thanksgiving with his family.
Can't wait!

Salsa y chocolate

2006-11-07T11:29:00.000-05:00

You know what latinos are really good at. Lovin'? Yeah. Salsa? Duh. But CHOCOLATE??
You wouldn't have thought, would you.

On Thursday night, Julian, Erminela and I attended our first-ever chocolate tasting event at Babson College. If you've done wine tasting before, you sort of know what it's like - minus the buzz. A plate with six different, delicious (albeit tiny) pieces of chocolate, crackers and water to cleanse your palate, accompanied by a rundown of the chocolate making process and input from Edison, a Quechua from Ecuador. The Kallari initiative works with the local cocoa farmers and makes sure that (unlike all other chocolate producers, even FairTrade!) ALL revenues flow back into the region. Also, dark chocolate is actually healthy! It lowers your blood pressure and cholesterol, and can prevent heart desease and even cancer. So throw out the Hershey Bars, this is the real thing!

The Latin mood continued when Meaghan and I met a bunch of her friends on Saturday for dinner and salsa at the Havana Club. A large ball-room, live music, classes to brush up on your rusty merengue, and largely creep-free dancing until the early hours of the morning. Who needs gyms when you can work your legs, hips and abs on the dance floor? Trust me, you work them. I realized when I limped home from Meaghan's house the next morning - after a delicious omelette breakfast, of course. You've got to stock up on calories.

And, speaking of calories, I had the most enjoyable project group meeting ever yesterday when we headed down to Harvard Square to conduct some market research interviews at Burdick's Chocolate Cafe.

Of course, some extensive product tasting was in order.

Black and white

2006-11-03T09:27:00.000-05:00

Over the past few days, I've made my first experience with how Americans (or at least those on this campus) deal with racism.
On Halloween night a white Babson student wore a Paul Pierce basketball jersey, an afro wig and black face paint to the campus party. It was later discovered that he had posted several offensive comments and pictures about black, Asian and hispanic people on his Facebook page. This incident has resulted in a wave of protest, and, quite frankly, I don't know what to make of it. The Babson Free Press is full of angry articles, the Student Government Association held a giant protest rally yesterday, reiterating over and over again that racism has no place on the Babson campus, and we spent our entire Social and Political Philosophy class discussing events.

I have talked about this story with several people: Lance, who is half native American, has started a group called "We're not going to protest". He thinks taking racist comments personally puts you in a position of weakness, and he does not want to let his life be ruled by fear of rejection. Alvin, president of the Student Government Association, formerly head of the Black Student Union, told me that many black students, coming from a largely black environment to a predominantly white campus, feel out of place and need black role models. Rebecca, editor in chief of the Babson Free Press and native Hawaiian, is very concerned about racism on campus, which, she says, has been an issue for a while.
Here is what I have come up with so far.

1) Racism is wrong, no doubt about it - and above all, it is simply stupid. It is nothing more than hatred and aggression grounded in false stereotypes about a group of people. In my opinion, it is usually the result of a bad experience or, more commonly, a way of compensating for a lack of self-esteem. There is no place for it in any environment, especially, one should think, in an environment where people think of themselves as educated.

2) If there are people on campus that feel afraid and marginalized because of their race, religion or sexual orientation, this is a problem that needs to be addressed - in my opinion, by each of us individually more than by the college as a whole. I do not believe in institutionalized tolerance, because it is hardly ever genuine. I believe it is about being respectful and considerate of our differences, but, more than anything, about accepting the person as a whole, and showing an interest in who someone is and why they think the way they think.

3) Shunning someone who obviously has racist tendencies to a point where he is refused a sandwich in the campus dining hall is as wrong, if not worse, than the racism we are trying to fight. What is happening here is that someone, again, is marginalized for his beliefs. True, his beliefs are obviously wrong, but lets think about the future. If this kid is expelled from college, and even if he is allowed to stay, he will be hostile towards both the college community and black people for the rest of his life, because in his view, they have made it miserable. It will definitely not help him realize that he is wrong.
What he needs is not for people to shun him, but to sit down and discuss his views with him. Again, it is about accepting the person, while rejecting the act. This is an important distinction, and, as far as I see it, the only solution that will break the vicious circle.

Wow, I think I sound like a political activist.
Any thoughts?

Fright Night

2006-10-31T19:25:00.000-05:00

You know it's that time of year when front yards turn into graveyards, skeletons hang upside down from trees, and you spot a plastic rat gnawing away on a bloody hand in the bushes...

Happy Halloween!

Our big campus Halloween party went down on Saturday, and since I was still coughing and sneezing, I lay low and went to bed before midnight. I was told I missed a downright orgy. I tell you I didn't miss a thing... I take a cup of tea and a good book over half-naked sweaty bodies and bad music any day.

Today I could tell it was Halloween because I saw professors wearing 17th century cloaks and students with their faces painted green. But most of all, it was the "Fright Night Dinner" at Trim Dining Hall which rocked the party. Skeletons, cobwebs and jack-o-lanterns everywhere, a corpse-shaped cake for dessert, pirates wiping tables and horror movie soundtracks instead of the usual U2/Dave Mathews/Jack Johnson mix.

Half the school is out clubbing in costumes, but I am a) royally sick of college parties and b) buried in work, so my I ditched plans to go to the witching town of Salem and wrote papers instead.

I have to say, I'm dying to wrap myself up in my bedsheet and go out for some trick-or-treating. But college life doesn't always allow for all that fun.
Instead, I'll go dream of monsters.

OMG, like, how are ya?

2006-10-28T14:43:00.000-04:00

Coming to the United States, I expected to encounter all kinds of things that would need some getting used to. The food, the shopping malls, dorm life, et cetera.
The one cultural particularity that I have not managed to get used to to this day are cultural differences connected to the language.

During my first days here, I was constantly being greeted with a friendly smile and the question: "How are you?" - "Fine", I answered. "Still a bit jetlagged, but I like it. And you?"
At best, my lengthy response would earn me a puzzled look. In the worst case, by the time I had gotten to "fine", they were already around the next corner.
And so I learned my first lesson: "How are you?" is not a question. It is a statement.
Then again, people make their stories sound like a series of questions. "The other day, I went to the mall? I looked around and saw this realy cute sweater? And I thought, oh my gawd? I think I need to have this?"
Con-fusing.

My other favorite: Fillers. Those useful little words and phrases can turn the smallest comment into a real semantic beauty. Take this example: "So OK, I was totally like, you know, 'I have no idea' or something!" Wow. Talk about adding spice to the phrase "I said 'I have no idea'."
The other day, my friend Alvin took a little tally counter to class, and we kept track of the amount of times that people used the word "like". We got to 115 in an hour.

And finally: Abbreviations. Why bother articulating words if a couple of letters do the trick? A few of my favorite examples:
DTR. Define The Relationship. The uncomfortable conversation between a boy and a girl to figure out "where they are at". Happens frequently and is hated, above all, by the male half of the pair.
BYOB. Bring your own beer/booze/bottle. Especially in a dry town like Wellesley, where bars and liquor stores are illegal and restaurants are not allowed to serve alcohol, people bring their own bottle of wine when they go out to have a pizza.
AWOL. Absence Without Official Leave - originally used in a military context for deserting soldiers, it is now used for people who have been gone or out of touch for a long time. The best part: It is actually pronouced! "She's been ay-wall for weeks now."
FYI. For your information. I knew that one before - what I didn't know is that it's actually a word. "Eff-why-eye, I am not coming to work tomorrow."

Oh, those Americans. Gotta love 'em.

Family reunion in NYC

2006-10-25T11:40:00.000-04:00

What a combo

The view from our hotel room window (39th floor!)

... and the next morning

Grand Central Station at rush hour

Photo shoot at the UN
One tends to forget that Manhattan is an island
(Can anyone spot the Statue of Liberty?)
Meeting Sascha (UN buildings reflected in the background)

Other highlights (as usual, mostly related to food):

Fajitas and margaritas at Mi Cocina
Breakfast at Pain Quotidien
the Frick Collection
getting lost walking around Lower Manhattan
a day in Central Park
LOTS and LOTS of quality time with Papi

I loved every minute of it and was sort of sad to say goodbye. After all, the next time I'll see anyone of my family is more than four months away! However, I really needed that dose of family time.

Back at Babson (drove back with Jo and arrived at midnight on Sunday), I woke up on Monday with a vicious cold and spent Tuesday morning in bed. A little down time and Jo's homecooked pasta a la puttanesca got me back on track and, though coughing and sneezing, I can face the load of work that's coming my way. And a load it is - November is so full of due dates, I don't even know where to start.
Speaking of which, I have a ton of work to do until tomorrow...
Buona notte to all.

Switching libraries

2006-10-20T16:33:00.000-04:00

Why squeeze in between dusty bookshelves at Babson when you can jet (or rather fung-wah) to the Big Apple and do your reading in a beautiful marble reading room at the NY Public Library?
While waiting for my father to arrive from Washington for a father-daughter reunion weekend, I decided to spend the rainy afternoon in here with my Babson-supplied laptop and Sandel's "Liberalism and its Critics", a book I need to read for Social and Political Philosophy (I am not that nerdy).
Maybe I am just imagining things, but somehow it is a lot easier to wrap your brain around theories of entitlement and distributive justice in a place where many a great novel has been written.

Meet the gang (Episode I)

2006-10-18T19:42:00.000-04:00

Alright. It is past midterm, and I still haven't introduced the people that I share all my joys and sorrows with on a daily basis. Everyone.... meet the gang.

Julian, also known as Pappa Peters, the King of Bavaria, or the Governator (because he not only looks, but also talks just like him).
He lives down the hall from me and has become my favorite lunch and dinner company and closest buddy on campus. A self-proclaimed misanthropist, it's sometimes hard to get him to smile, but he is always the first one there to cheer me up, calm me down or just provide for hours of heated discussions - on every topic from football to monogamy. He and Cameron are the stars of the rugby team, so when it's pub night, I've got my personal squad of bodyguards to keep me safe.

Cameron, or Gramps, is the oldest undergrad on campus at age 29, but age does not stop him. He managed to get a job at the Blank Center for Entrepreneurship, the university's most prestigious institution, interviewing in a pair of old pants and a smelly old T-shirt. He can pull off tight running shorts and a red ribbed tank top at rugby training and rides his race bike to a from his off-campus home every day. He knows everyone on this planet and manages to get exactly what he wants just because he is never too shy to ask. Running two businesses in Australia via Skype and Internet and taking a full course load here, he spends his (seemingly extensive) spare time goofing around campus on his longboard, shooting pictures for his photography class and partying the nights away with Julian, his wingman. The big question is - when does the guy do his homework??

Montse, or Monchito, is a little Spanish lady with the biggest smile. She is 5 foot (or, for those among us who use the normal metric system, 1,50m) tall and weighs no more than 100lbs (45kg). She's an absolute beauty, as you can see, but so frail that when a big guy hugs her, I am always afraid that her bones might snap. Her strong Spanish accent and uncontrollable squeals of laughter always provide for a good time, especially when she shakes her head in utter desperation over an insurmountable cultural difference between Spain and the States.
Favorite quote: (munching on some raw broccoli:) "Now I know chhow feels my rrrrabbit!"

Ah, Francesco. He refers to himself as "italianissimo", and since he is a real Sicilian from Palermo, no one dares to disagree. However, if the Cosa Nostra depended on him, it would be a lost cause - he is the gentlest, most friendly guy in the world. Always complaining about American food ("Ma che e questo - questo si chiama pasta!!?? Ah, gli Americani, incredibile!!"), he piles tons of salad onto his plate at lunch and shuns the American-style Italian specialties offered at the cafeteria. Francesco is a man of culture - if someone gets him started on the Latin origin of Italian words, he'll gladly lecture you for 20 minutes. However, his facial expressions when he is in "professor mode" are priceless, so I just sit there and enjoy lo spettacolo. (Which, incidently, comes from the latin word spectaculum, spectaculi, meaning sight, show, or spectacle...)

To be continued.

Autumn Leaves

2006-10-17T08:04:00.000-04:00

I've always liked autumn - but the colors of the leaves in New England are just nothing short of spectacular! I had been marvelling at the bright red, orange and green for days, so I decided on the weekend that it was time to go on a little trip to see the Foliage.
It turns out that we headed straight for the region where trees were just beyond their peak, but the landscape what beautful nevertheless.

A little cultural gem on the way: The all-American conveniece store.

A stunning road trip and a good hike were topped off with delicious Spanish tapas, Sangria and Rioja, and an excellent movie called The Bycicle Thief (or, rather, the first 15 minutes of it before we all fell asleep).
On Sunday night I accompanied Kitt, my friend from Wellesley College, to a conference on Feminist Sexual Ethics. I wasn't too sure what to expect, given that my past experiences with feminist events have been more on the terrible side, but it was surprisingly interesting and a nice little knowledge boost.

When I got back to campus and heard all the stories about crazy rugby parties, boys drinking from beer bottles taped to their hands, and others getting stoned in the car, I couldn't help but think that my weekend had been a helluva lot more enjoyable - and my head, compared to the others', felt just fine.

The shortest week

2006-10-12T17:48:00.000-04:00

I love it when the weekends are longer than the weeks. Monday was Columbus Day, which provided for four wonderful days in... take a wild guess... New York!
Is this getting old? Maybe. But if you ask me, one could spend many more weekends there.

I took off around noon on Thursday, thanks to my brilliant class schedule. This time the long trip (an hour from campus to the station, an hour's wait and 4.5 hours in the bus) was drastically improved by Ee-Ling (Australia) and Kris (California) who happened to travel to the Big Apple on the same bus, and some dubious Chicken McNuggets and Mustard Sauce at the mini-stopover in Connecticut. It is strange that while McDonalds is still quite a big deal in Europe, it really is pretty disgusting here. You're talking to an expert - we are served burgers, chicken nuggets and the like on a daily basis at Babson.

Thursday night was spent with Sascha on the roof of his Noho apartment house. We snuck past the landlady's door with a bottle of sparkling wine, two glasses and a camera and enjoyed the view of the lower Manhattan skyline. A glass and a half made us feel adventurous, so we climbed across a couple of ledges to the neighbor's roof garden. The comfortable lounge chairs looked like a grand idea until we were caught red-handed by the owner, who screamed at us and then called her boyfriend to stand guard while we guiltily retreated.

Looking out on the Big apple from Sascha's roof

On Friday I met up with my cousin Sophie, who is currently painting murals at some ridiculously luxurious mansion in the Hamptons. We did some shopping (well, she did, and I watched), checked out some design, contemporary art and photography the MoMa, had a hot dog and a coffee and just generally enjoyed each other's company.
I then joined Bill Grace and his sister Mara for dinner in Greenwich Village, where I was treated to some fine food in order to, as Bill put it, cure my cafeteria-induced scurvy.

On Saturday I met Colin at Grand Central Station in the early morning and we caught a train up to Tarrytown for some hiking (actually, strolling) with Scott in the Rockefeller State Park.

Can you tell we had been up early...?
Some Canada geese and a hawk on the pole that sat motionless in this exact same position for 20 minutes

Scott in the greenhouse

After coming back on Sunday afternoon, I went for an evening stroll through the beautiful neighborhood of Chelsea with Sascha, who was trying to find a house that had once been inhabited by his favorite designer Robert Brownjohn. We peeked through windows at classy livingrooms and stylish kitchens and felt very New York.

On Monday I walked a dozen blocks south to visit the Ground Zero site for the first time since 2002. I felt strange, like an intruder, as I aimlessly wandered around between thoughtful tourists and Chinese souvenir salesmen, looking at larger-than-life photos of terrified businessmen and devastated firefighters.
The afternoon was spent in Central Park, reading and napping, before I took off to Yonkers to meet up with Jo who, after serving me a fantastic beef chili, gave me a ride back to Boston and spent the night on an air mattress in my dorm room.

Next week is midterm, and the semester is halfway over. I am enjoying all my little adventures and trying to make each day special, but somehow I don't entirely feel at home here. For someone who has never been prone to homesickness, I think about my family surprisingly often and miss many things that made life so comfortable in Vienna. Luckily, it's only a week and a few days now before I return to New York to see my father, who will be there for some UN business.

Can't wait!!

Time flies.

2006-10-04T17:43:00.000-04:00

I always thought that only old people say that. But in fact, ever since I've arrived at Babson, time just seems to slip by. Weeks feel like days, months like weeks, and sometimes I find myself lying in bed at night thinking: "Where the heck has this day gone?"

Between figuring out basic campus survival rules (like, don't stick your favorite jeans or delicate T-shirts into the dryer if you want them to fit afterwards), making friends, good old homework, classes, group meetings, and the odd bit of fun, there hardly seems to be a minute that I am actually idle.

Again, I need to incorporate a list of highlights into this post for the sake of brevity.

Almost Famous. Last Saturday, Montse and I went downtown to meet Meaghan for a bit of Latin dancing at Havana Club in Boston. It turned out that MTV was shooting an episode of Made at the club that night, so if you look carefully, you might be able to see a little Spanish girl and a tall Austrian girl samba-, mambo- and bachata-ing in the background.

Rudderless on the Charles. Four men and a lady in a canoe - sounds like Pocahontas, minus the rowing skills. While we were happily zig-zagging from bank to bank, we rammed nearly all Harvard Rowing Team boats that were training on the Charles River. "Keep to the right hand side!" was about the nicest comment we got.

The crew: Moi, Jesper (Sweden), Aaron (Texas), Steve (Massachusetts), and Bjorn (Sweden) filling out the required test pre-takeoff

You better know what to do with your paddles...

Slaves on the galley

Academic tidbits. Wrote my first-ever philosophy paper: "Pity or Power - The view of human nature at the heart of Berlin's concepts of freedom". It required me to wreck my brain like I had never done before. There is just no way you can wing it when your work will be subject to the merciless scrutiny of a philosopher. They might say there's no money in philosophy, but there's definitely a lot more brain than in business.
On the not-so-nerdy side: When going through one of his assignments with Francesco last night, I had a good laugh at the Italian way of using metaphors even in a business context. On business incubators: "The group should have evaluated venture proposals by identifying the seeds, nurturing them as long as necessary, and eventually sometimes spinning them off. They had to hatch the eggs, as an incubator should do. It’s not so easy like for a chicken." And a couple of lines down: "So we can consider this a great move in order to hatch the egg, because from the egg should arise a new chicken."

Plans for the weekend. Monday is Columbus Day, so I am taking off for yet another long weekend. Saturday and Sunday we'll go to upstate NY to do some hiking in the Beaverkill Valley, and the rest of the weekend is yet to be determined.

A virtual campus tour

2006-09-29T22:12:00.000-04:00

... as promised. I am missing a couple of important buildings because my photo tour was cut short, but here is a little taste of my surroundings.
(Click on the picture to start the tour)

Babson campus tour

Sep 29, 2006 - 14 Photos

You three-inch fool!

2006-09-27T16:42:00.000-04:00

Thou loathsome scab in Greece!
You ruinous butt!
Poisonous, bunch-backed toad!
Diffus'd infection of a man!

These and other Shakespearean insults were screamed at each other in tonights acting class. It was all about vocal focus, energy, diaphragmatic breathing and all that technical stuff, but ultimately, the best part was givin' it to each other in Shakespearean English. "Your bum is the greatest thing about you; so that, in the beastliest sense, you are Pompey the Great."
EAT THAT.

Anger management aside, time is flying by, and I realized today that it was exactly a month ago that I arrived on campus. In the past four weeks, I have met a mind-boggling amount of people, settled in to entirely new surroundings, and even turned my dark, smelly, damp room into a bearable living space.
Jo has been a regular visitor to our humble abode in the past weeks, making use of Julian's and Antonio's spare room and providing for a steady supply of beer, laughs, good music and high quality female company. She lives in New York, but just started her Doctoral degree in Jazz in Boston and, instead of finding a room for two nights a week, lightens up our rather dull business student routine with her spunky presence. Given that we only spent a month together in 2000 and haven't seen each other since, it's quite a miracle that I feel like I've had her around for ages.

Coming up at Babson: Homecoming weekend, boating on the Charles, and Salsa at Havana Club on Saturday.
Coming up on the blog: A virtual campus tour, and an e-introduction to the Babson gang.

And, now that we're at it, let me close with another of old Will's quotes:
I bear a charmed life.

Cultural pleasures

2006-09-24T20:00:00.000-04:00

The play, I remember, pleased not the million; 't was caviare to the general.
Hamlet, 2. 2

Who ever said that Americans have no culture? On Saturday, Julian (Germany), Cameron (Australia), Aaron (Texas) and I decided to take Cameron's friend Kitt up on her invitation to come see "Hamlet" at Wellesley College, where she studies.
Wellesley is an all-girls college, quite prestigious, proudly boasting alumnae like old Hillary and Madeleine Albright. It is 130 years old, with a huge campus, a lake and a beautiful theater hall. Unfortunately we only caught a glimpse of it at night, but I am definitely going back. Since I seem to be hanging out mainly with guys around here, it is time to immerse myself into a world full of wonderful ladies.

Other highlights of the weekend:
Watching my first rugby match - boy, what a violent sport. Thirty men, covered in sweat and mud, tackling each other like there is no tomorrow. Black eyes, dislocated shoulders, and sprained ankles. Julian (Germany) and Cameron (Australia, affectionately referred to by the name of Gramps) did their thing, and I still haven't decided whether I am shocked or intrigued.

A visit to the Mall - while I am not a big fan of giant shopping centers, there are stores I just can't resist. Also, I finally got my running shoes, and went for an inaugural jog this morning.

Dinner in Chinatown - our new friends Reagan (yes, like the president), Brooke, Zach and Preston took a bunch of us exchange students out to Boston Chinatown for some do-it-yourself fondue-style Chinese dinner. We loved it, although some of us had tears streaming down our faces due to extreme soup spiciness.

Carol, Lysiane and Zach enjoying their meals

Pub Night at Rodger's on campus - it's a Thursday night regular, always nice to kick off the weekend with.

Top: Me, Montse and Tere (from Barcelona)
Bottom: Tere, Montse, Francesco (Palermo) and Carol (Barcelona)

Other than that, papers, prep reading and classes don't leave much room for laziness. I haven't watched TV since I came here, and have only read half a book (of my own choice, that is). Those who know me will realize how unusual that is. Still, I am enjoying both the challenges and fun of college life.
I am a bit short on words and imagination tonight.
I will let the photos do the talking.

From Beantown to the Big Apple

2006-09-18T13:26:00.000-04:00

The good thing about living on your own somewhere is that you are free to do whatever you please. For me, this meant acting upon a random desire to go to New York over the weekend and hopping on an early-morning Chinatown bus on Friday.
For someone who always looked at $350 tickets to one of my favorite cities with a certain longing, spending fifteen bucks on a crummy old Fung-Wah felt like heaven.

I arrived in New York Chinatown roughly four hours later and made my way to the Subway in the pouring rain to stop over at Colin's "Skypad" (a beautiful hideout on the tenth floor of an Upper East Side apartment building) for lunch. Plans to wander around fell through due to the water pouring from the sky, but I caught up on homework instead and then met my Aussie friend Jo and her man James for some soup dumplings and a good chat in Chinatown before heading out to Yonkers, NY to spend the night at their funky basement studio.

The weather luckily cleared up and allowed for a boat ride, a hot "dawg" and some live music in Central Park the next day, followed by a 65-block walk through Manhattan with Sascha. I had the honor of being Sascha's first official visitor since his move to NYC a year ago, and got a tour of his Noho neighborhood and a peek at some of the work he did at art school last year.

We met up with Colin again for dinner at Perbacco in the Village before I crashed on a cozy mattress on the floor of Sascha's room.

Sunday we did 8 a.m. Mass at St. Vincent Ferrer and had a nice brunch at Pandora's before I headed back down to Chinatown with Sascha and caught the 12 o'clock bus back to Boston.

No Empire State Building, no Times Square, none of the usual touristy stuff - but I have the feeling that I drank in more New York spirit than during any of my previous visits.

That Apple, I just love it.

My picture-taking discipline was a bit on the weak side this time (for example, not a single graphic record of my reunion with Jo), but here is a selection.

Some NYC architecture

Colin on The Lake in Central Park (Can you believe this is New York City??)

Mag in the row boat (the only women workin' the oars on the entire lake!)

Sascha and his apartment on Bleecker Street

A Riddle for the Weekend

2006-09-15T00:27:00.000-04:00

It's a piece of fruit.
It is large.
I am going there for the weekend.

Any guesses?

Excited ... see you on the flip side!

Germ ridden

2006-09-11T12:21:00.000-04:00

Last week, they put up hand sanitizers all over campus. I guess they were trying to prevent us from getting sick by making us rub a strange-smelling liquid onto our hands. Well, it didn't work ... I caught a cold.
My nose is runny, my eyes water, and I cough, but the nicest bit is my 1-800 number sex hotline voice that causes classmates to turn and stare whenever I make a comment in class. Which, being the chatterbox that I am, happens quite frequently.

Apart from that, college life is good. I am working away on my freshman 15, stuffing myself with carbs and fatty foods at the cafeteria every day. Don't get me wrong, I try to avoid them - but the choice of foods seems to diminish by the day. I hit my limits yesterday when I tried to have maccaroni & cheese for brunch. Don't try that.
My bold plans to join both the Women's Rugby team and the Jukido Jiujitsu self-defense class were postponed for the lack of energy and proper clothing. Once I feel better and buy running shoes, I"ll need to find a new excuse.

Classes never cease to surprise me. After having worked on a case involving 3M in my Corporate Entrepreneurship course, the prof pulled out a phone from underneath her desk today in the middle of class and actually called up one of the executives we had read about so we could ask him questions.
I have more homework than ever before and spend pretty much the entire day reading cases and articles, coming up with business ideas (wait till my new handbag organizer hits the market) and plowing through pages of Thomas Hobbes in old English.
Sound nerdy? I suppose so, but I love it.

Tomorrow my long-lost World Vision Youth Ambassador friend and talented jazz singer Jo Lawry will visit me on campus and spend the night. I haven't seen her since the summer of 2000, so I am very excited.
Alright, time for lunch. Burgers, burritos and chocolate muffins, here I come.

Sights and sounds

2006-09-04T09:37:00.000-04:00

The first week has been very eventful. Pub Night at Roger's (the campus pub), a Joshua Tree concert and one of the famous Knight Parties, named after the Knight Auditorium where it is held, demonstrated the reality of the American alcohol policy. Coming from a country where the consumption of wine and beer is legal at age sixteen, it really takes a while to get used to the procedures:

1) Show your passport to the scary-looking cop at the door
2) Receive a plastic bracelet indicating that you are of legal drinking age
3) Proceed to the designated drinking area, get a beer
4) Sip it quietly while watching the jealous faces of those who are denied entrance into the Halls of Glory, unable to decide whether to feel stupid or special
5) DO NOT (!!!) leave the designated area with your beer cup, or else you will be dragged back by your collar.

Hmm.
Apart from these college activities, we explored Boston despite the rainy and cold weather on Saturday, ate some lobster and fudge (not together, I must add) and walked part of the Freedom Trail.

Fun on and around campus

Exploring Boston

The academically most impressive experience of the week was a meeting with Prof. Taylor, who specializes in entrepreneurship, specifically social entrepreneurship. Not only did she take time to talk to me for more than an hour, she was also genuinely interested in my thoughts and made a huge effort to go through ideas and options for my thesis with me. In Austria, no professor talks to you for such a long time, unless they have a personal interest. I am seeing the benefits of American education.

On the "downside", I think I've found out where our housing and tuition money is going. Last week's "What's up Wednesday" was advertised as "Make Your Own Fishtank Night". I didn't go, but a couple of hundred freshmen did. The college gave away free goldfish, tanks, and all the gadgets that go with them. Now that is what I call an efficient use of my money. It made a tank full of Nemos very happy this week.

In-spired and ex-cited

2006-08-30T21:59:00.000-04:00

Where do I start? So much has happened in the past few days that no matter how hard I try, this post will be endless. Therefore, similar to the Dining Hall on campus, I'll display a selection of the finest bits and pieces.

1) Orientation. A giant BBQ party, talks on self-esteem, alcohol abuse and eating disorders, a wild boat cruise in Boston Harbor with spectacular views of the skyline, Visa Info sessions (I thought America wasn't bureaucratic ... I was WRONG.), lunches with faculty and staff, Bingo organized by the Panhellenic Council (Kappa Kappa Gamma, Sigma Epsilon Chi and all those girls that wear big Greek letters on the front of their sweaters).

2) Freshmen. I sat next to five of them on the shuttle bus to Boston Harbor. Conversation topics ranged from pressing international issues ("What language do they speak in Austria?") to a genuine interest in my person ("You're 24!?!? Do you have an ID? Can you buy us alcohol??"). Their favorite and most frequently used four-letter word definitely began with F. By the time we left the bus, I had developed an almost maternal connection.

3) Food. I love burgers. I love pizza. I L-O-V-E chocolate chip cookies. It is a real act of self-discipline to squeeze in the occasional plate of salad and helping of fruit to avoid the infamous "freshman 15" (or exchange 15, in my case). Anyone care to bet that I will still fit into my jeans by the time I leave? If I do, you owe me a double bacon cheeseburger.

4) Classes. Definitely more challenging, but also a whole lot more interesting than anything I have taken back home. In Negotiations today, we were deep into our first negotiations exercise 5 minutes after entering the classroom. I sold a $15,000 piece of land for $19,500 and was really proud until I found out that the lowest anyone else went was $22,000. Dang. I have a lot to learn.

5) People. Smiles, waves and individuals with an incredible memory for names impress me every day. Coming from a country where it is almost rude to start a conversation with someone you don't know, it takes a little effort to get used to introducing myself to people I stand next to in the cafeteria line, but I am really enjoying it. Where else could you say that you've met about 60 people in your first 4 days?? Professors take you out for dinner ("The first one who sends me an e-mail can pick a nice restaurant downtown and take three friends."), peer mentors who stop by Target to get you a pillow and search friends' basements for blankets, bus drivers who recognize you 30 minutes later and still know where you were going ... that's America. Or at least the little part I am priviledged to know.

6) Wellesley. A main street with a convenience store, a hair and nail studio, a pizza place, a cafe, a wholefoods store, a gas station and a fire department, a twenty-minute walk from campus. (The mere fact that us Europeans walk resulted in surprised looks from car-crazy fellow students and friendly waves from a family watching us across their picket fence.) Also, Wellesley is a dry town - you cannot buy alcohol there, and if you really want a glass of wine with your pizza, you can bring your own bottle. Nice, huh?

7) Dorm rooms. I am amazed at the amount of furniture and gadgets people manage to stuff into their tiny dorm rooms. I've seen plasma TV screens, gigantic stereo systems, couches, queen sized beds, to say the least. Compared to the U-Haul trucks regular students arrived in, my two 70-pound suitcases suddenly seem ridiculously small.

As a friend told me today, welcome to America.

On a lighter note: Girls, how much time do you spend on your hair?

Orientation in graphics

2006-08-29T22:52:00.000-04:00

Babson begins

2006-08-27T21:30:00.000-04:00

I have arrived. A long flight, a stopover in Heathrow, and a two-hour wait at Immigration made it a little tough, but then I was warmly welcomed by Stew and Toshi the cat at their Boston home and spent the night on a comfortable futon bed.
On Saturday morning, my two big heavy suitcases and I embarked on yet another Odyssey to Babson College, which took me two hours instead of 45 minutes. I am now a proud resident of Putney Hall (or Putney "Hole" as I like to call it), a slightly run-down and dark dorm, but nevertheless a fun place to be. Wonderful Jen gave us a ride to the Mall today and counceled us through the seemingly endless variety of products (how on earth are you supposed to make a quick decision about laundry detergent when you've got 30 different types??), and now all I am missing is a warm blanket to get me through the surprisingly cold autumn nights.

I'm stuffed with bagels, burgers and brownies, I was called "honey" at least four times today by total strangers, I had sushi at the College President's house last night and watched students parade flags down the aisle of Staake Gymnasium today, accompanied by loud trumpet music. People wear flip flops in any weather, all the cool kids wear Babson apparel, and the size of the cars in the student parking lot exceeds that of any car in the entire country of Austria.
I am truly in America, and I love it.

There is so much more to say, but the jetlag and the prospect of another busy orientation day tomorrow are keeping me from going into detail. I'll be back with more, but for now, I leave you with images of the miraculous transformation of my dorm room.

My dorm room 5 minutes after my arrival

... and a few hours later.

The sky said goodbye

2006-08-21T16:20:00.000-04:00

The sky on my last night at the Mill.

Oh yes, my life's a trip.

2006-08-03T09:30:00.000-04:00

"Life is either a daring adventure or nothing." - Helen Keller

The breathtaking, beautiful whirlwind that is my life continues. As I try to keep up with it, I have moved my webhome in favor of comments without passwords and free photo uploads.
Drop by and let me know how you are doing.