Man, this is really going to be a photo finish. Yesterday a group of students that were part of a program called "Rails for peace" stayed at our school for a day. Serbians, Kosovonians, Bosnians, Germans, Italians, and Belgians to balance things out. We had no real concept of how tense some of their workshops were, until I spoke with many of them much later on, and had them recount the Serbia-Bosnia-Kosovo connections to me from their own sides.
That aside, a lot of them were hot. And smart. And funny. I made friends with a girl who insisted on being called Swan, because her name was very difficult to say for us, and meant Swan in Kosovo. She spoke five languages, was 19, and had the most amazing stories about being forced to excommunicate Kosovo and live in Germany for two years while NATO bombed Serbia and rebuilt their infrastructure.
Allison and I stayed the whole day with them while everyone else went home for lunch and whatnot. We got to see comedic dramatic performances of what they had learned in their workshops so far, which were chalked full of self-referential humor to terms like "perception" and "input" and mocking a lot of the coordinators for being so stiff-necked.
After that we went out to the Tyver river and hung out at a bar, where we all drank and talked about our native countries. I apologized a lot for Bush, every time someone asked me where I was from and I said Texas, they'd give me this steel-eyed gaze and I'd say, "I'm sorry! We don't like him either, I'm voting for Obama!"
All of the people in the group were amazing, and it overwhelmed me how much they had to get past to just sit in those rooms together. It put me in mind of a similar program in which US students might have to do the same thing with students from all of the nations of the middle east, Palestine, and Israel. Maybe North Korea too.
Today my head hurts, my pocketbook is even lighter, and I've got 9 days left on under 300 euro. Happily, I discovered a chinese food place down the street from my house where I can get 2.50 euro bowls of fried rice and chicken, and can budget the rest of my time here carefully (aside from this weekend. Rules go out the window then).
Now, I must prepare an oral presentation that I have to give on Monday, right after I get back from Love Parade. Imagine how happy I am about that. Just imagine it.
-Sean
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5 comments:
Stretch that coin!
But, all in all the written and oral expression in yourself has most likely come around [solid}
fold, the inner speaking and heart beating rhythms are all pumping at full force. Meaning you have your lead back ( pencil, writing expressing skill)
i didnt like what i said on the original post, could have been taken oddly. because this was the first post i read, so understandable i spoke without full knowledge of what you shared previously.
but here is some of the post.
O and The LOVE parade. Maybe the best experience in current social sharing to date.
Happy I checked up on your status, where abouts
Keep Live(ing)those Dreams of YOURS!
Caio
Monique H. (Dallas)
and meeting with the folks that our generational history experienced and witnessed in tales from the news and parents as a child,
I bet speaking with them was an unspeakable understanding for failure triumph and happiness.
I had better Chinese food in both Florence and Rome than I ever had in Dallas.
You can do anything.
And fly.
And, and I really, really want to fly with you.
I feel in a limbo of I wish you were here I wish I were there I wish you were here, etcetera.
The Dark Knight released today. And, I don't even care.
...sort-of. ;)
Let love seep into you like rain on a blue-topped ocean front,
Rabbit.
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