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From: "Zachary Foreman"
I'm starting this edition with a little note about the dilution of the English language. Over time, because people have a tendency to exaggerate, words lose some of their power. This is especially true with words associated with mental illness or instability. I myself have been accused of being "crazy" (it's true!) and calling someone insane or a psychopath or deranged doesn't have the meaning it once had. (of course, there is the counter-balancing phenomenon of euphemisms...) Why am I saying this? Because my suite-mate is truly deranged. Not peculiar, not eccentric, not creative, or "different" but seriously dangerous. This is not only a colorful anecdote but also and excuse and apology for not writing any of you this week. At first, Bob seemed ok. He was from Las Vegas (most recently). He's kinda old (sorry dad), maybe in his late 40's early 50's. That's old for living in a dormitory in Krakow. We couldn't really figure out what he was doing here or what he did in the US. All we knew was that he prayed a lot. On Christmas, he said, he drank a lot and was sitting on the square in the center of Old Town. Someone took his gloves which were sitting next to him, on top of a trash can. He argued with him (in English) and then the man went to the police, who promptly took Bob back to Piast (the dorm) and to his room. One of my friends said that she saw him being dragged in and he was yelling at the police and saying that he was an American and insulting Poles, etc. Then one night, I was lying down in bed reading and so was my roommate. Bob knocked on the door and started talking to us. A few days earlier I had had a conversation about a book that I was reading, In Europe's Name, by Timothy Garton Ash, about post-war German foreign policy (especially Ostpolitik). He then made some sort of joke equating the above topic to Neo-nazism. Suffice to say, Richard (my roommate from Germany) was not amused. Then he made another joke about taking my change which was lying on the desk, and one more about Richard and I being comedians. It was all very strange but within the limits of eccentricity. Then clinical paranoia ensues. At 8 pm one evening, I go out to work on my paper. I have headphones on and on my way out slam the door really hard. So hard that I apologize to my roommate (or door has a loose window and so makes a very loud noise, like something is breaking). Apparently, right after I left, Bob barged into the room and started accusing Richard of slamming *his* door, apparently just for the evil pleasure of it. Richard was very confused and slightly frightened. Bob was saying things like "I have lots of enemies and you two are just two more..." and when Richard asked him to calm down and communicate, Bob said "I only communicate with God". Although I am not a trained psychiatrist, I think it is safe to say that this is not normal behavior. I arrived back late that night and Richard told me about the whole bizarre episode. I thought little of it and he said that I should just be warned. The next morning, as I was going to the bathroom immediately after getting up, Bob confronted me in our common "lobby" (I was still in my underwear, since it is rare for someone to intercept me in the two steps it takes to get to the bathroom). He mentioned something about slamming his door. I said that I didn't know what he was talking about. He said "You damn well know what I'm talking about." and then I said that I was sorry. That evening, I was visiting friends on the first floor and one of them wanted to make some spaghetti. I had a tomato, onions and red pepper in my room and said that I would bring her some. I went up to get them. I didn't turn on the light because I didn't want to wake my roommate. Then I went back down to cook. About 15 minutes later, I realized that I had forgotten the pepper and so went back (this was about midnight). As I was leaving the second time, he confronted me again, in the dark. I said that I was sorry if I had waked him. He said "You said you were sorry this morning!" And so I just apologized again. It was very surreal because I could only see his silhouette and I was holding a third of a red pepper in my hand. I was breathing heavily because I had walked quickly up 4 flights of stairs and that is all that I heard as we stared at each other. Then, without looking away from him, I turned the handle of the door and very quickly left. That night, I decided not to return and spent the night at a friends. The next morning I went to the administration and requested another room. I moved out that day (Wednesday). There are a bunch of bureaucratic details that I won't go into but I will be staying in room 101 (yay Skippy!) until Monday (that is when Bob is supposed to leave). So, that is part of the reason I have been absent from the email scene... Sorry. The second reason has a far happier ending. I turned in my paper for nato and EU integration on Wednesday. It was about 5500 words and took a long time to write. Basically it was on the future security structure of Europe. Then today I had the exam which was essentially a defense (now I'm used to British spelling...) of my paper. I spent last night studying all about the history of the EC and EU and NATO and other European organizations. Then at 2:30 I had the first oral examination in my life (well, except at the dentist... :)) Anyway, it went well even though I was pretty nervous. I bungled the first question (in my defense, I started the paper in December and he asked me about the principles on which NATO was founded, as outlined in the preamble to the Washington treaty, (which I quoted)), getting only 2 out of 5 parts correct (democracy and common heritage). The next two I did better on and got an A- for the final, an A for the paper and an A-/B+ for class participation and so he was kind to me by giving me an A for the course (the only real challenging course that I took here (well, the literature one was good but more of a self-challenge). So, I have moved and completed a paper and taken a final in the past three days (not to mention the breakthrough in episode 4, level one of Duke Nukem...).I will try to get my vacation edition out tomorrow but can't promise anything. I will write all of you who wrote to me asap (skippy, aviva, diana, z, maya, du'c (we're trading mass mailings), etc. I wouldn't mind hearing from some others though... I will soon be out of email range (LATVIA). Here's a tentative schedule: Feb 7-14 LATVIA
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