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From: "Zachary Foreman"
Hey, this message is nothing spectacular. I just decided to write about Krakow, since I seem to be in a good mood. I just finished my killer polish literature paper. It was about romanticism, modernism and suicide. Lots of laughs. Anyway after many nights alone in the computer room working (and playing civilization and solitaire). And then when I was going to print a draft to revise...the network went down. I thought it might have been my fault, so I caught the 6:00 am tram and went to sleep for a few hours. When I came back at 1, I found out that the electricity had gone down ion the street. What else could go wrong? So I asked my professor for another day and of course she granted it. Then I had class. This class is the worst class I've ever taken,. The professor is very nice but speaks very slowly and in a soothing voice. He also rephrases the same statement, after a generous pause. He also tends to hand out roses to the women in class, for some obscure reason. There's no way to ask...He goes on plenty of tangents, about his education, the famous people he's met, customs, etc. Then he asks these (rhetorical?) questions such as "What is ideology?" or "What is nationalism?" and then pauses for slightly tooo long. Anyway, it's really cold and dark outside. This has the negative side effect of me wanting to stay in my nice warm bed all day. Also throw in the fact that there are only 4 computers (and only one that has a real word processing program in it), so I end up staying all night (work interspersed with Civilization sessions). After that first boring class, I had another class to make up for the fact that the class was canceled (because the former economic minister came to speak at the school). I was really tired and had just endured way too much class. Then she started talking about snakes all the time. She likes the image of every paradise having a snake. So we talked about the image of the Czech economy as paradise and she believes it to be like that scene in The raiders of the Lost Arc. One of my friends afterwards said that he was going to walk out if she mentioned snakes one more time and another friend agreed. (She doesn't like the Czechs). After that class, it was 8 pm. I hadn't been back to my room since the evening before. I went back to get some material and started working on my paper. I worked all night (well, and played some). I also had to write a presentation for my NATO/EU enlargement class as well as that Romantic Death paper. After a long night, I finished them both (not bad papers actually) and then at 7 came home. I showered, shaved, changed, etc, and tried not to wake my roommate. I came back and was ready for class. I guess I will talk about my roommate a bit here (I can't remember if I have yet, but oh well). He's from Germany and want's to intern in a cookie factory here (I make fun of that alot). He has nothing to do here really. He's on the TEMPUS program, like a lot of people here so the EU pays for their schooling as well as living expenses so they end of making money here. Although, he's not taking any classes, he is still taking the money, so he has a lot now. It seems like a big scam. the two Taiwanese women here are never in class, they always seem to be on a trip, but Europe is still paying for them to come here, and they're not even European. My schedule has been really erratic lately and I feel bad for my roommate. I am more likely to be sleeping at 4 pm than 4 am and sometimes I sleep for 24 hrs straight (this has just started this week though). He's 27 and pretty cool. He's always in bed though. I guess he just needs something to do. So do I, everyone is leaving and I had no work to do this weekend. Things are really winding up and I'm used to the crazy work load at Stanford. After the class, I was really tired but for some reason, I decided to go eat (well, I hadn't eaten in a long time either). So, I went to my favorite restaurant (they gave me a free t-shirt, I'll show it to you when I get back). It's really hard to find but fast and cheap and the staff is nice for the standard here. So after that I was wandering around the square. They have these really neat wooden stands out on the square selling Christmas ornaments, spiced wine, roasted nuts, coffee, candy, etc. It seemed really genuine Christmas. Nothing plastic, nothing artificial, all sold by people who looked really cold. For some reason this made me really happy. It was like a connection with the past. It was an ancient market square and it really was a market square. On the other side of the Cloth Hall, they've been selling flowers in the same place since the 14th century. I have to buy some there. And the people! It's almost scary how many there were on the streets. Americans aren't used to that many people on the streets. The only time I've seen that many has been in Manhattan, but there everyone is going so fast and doesn't look around. Here, it's below freezing but women are pushing strollers, talking, window shopping, etc. Some people here got frustrated because they want to get SOMEWHERE NOW but have to wait behind this group of afternoon strollers. Actually, the best analogy I can think of is an amusement park. Lots of kids, no real hurry (but not the lines), crowds, basically happy,. I guess that happens sometimes in malls, like on a big shopping day. Maybe that's where Americans do their strolling now. But I still like it better outside, in a real town, not a "Town Centre" or some other fake city center. I still haven't told you about thanksgiving or about my great trip to a "monastery of death" (to cap off my great "meditation on Death" week). So, that will be my next letter. It seems that I will be returning in mid-January, so I will see you soon. Zach |