It was 20 years ago today

Mon Jul 13, 2009 14:15 EST (UTC -5)

I am now in my twenties. Happy birthday to me. Woo!

My last post was three days late. I couldn't get the photos off my camera (it's old and the parts are getting loose), and once the camera magically fixed itself, I couldn't upload the photos because my web host was in crisis mode (someone figured out how to change their account balance without making a payment). For this post, I can't seem to access FTP or SFTP. It's probably the local network. So, no pictures. Boo. [Edit Mon Jul 20, 2009 07:33 UTC -5: Several pictures added. Yay!]

On Wednesday morning, I arrived in Vienna very tired, so I didn't really do anything all day. Andy cooked, and that was about it.

We spent most of Thursday the same way. We were enjoying the apartment, which belonged to a distant relative of Andy's. He wasn't much older than us, and he was a grad student with a girlfriend, so he wasn't around a lot of the time. But he was there on Thursday evening, so he wanted to show us around the city a bit before we had to leave the next day.

We went to the old part of the city, which is surrounded by a circle of wide boulevards collectively known as the Ring. I remember from my history class that the city walls used to be there. We walked around a bit. The main sight to see in the center of the city is Stephansdom, or St. Stephen's Cathedral.

After that, we went to a sort of international festival that was going on in front of city hall. They were screening films of orchestra concerts and there were tons of pavilions serving up food from around the world. Since Andy's relative is British by birth, he was interested in the Indian food, and so were we. We also got some beer. The food was good. Even the beer was pretty good. After that, we we were tired and went home.

On Friday, we set out for the second annual Summer Esperanto Study in Modra-Harmonia, Slovakia. We first had to take a train from Vienna to Bratislava, and I was getting nervous because we were running behind. At the station in Vienna, Andy saw an Esperantist he knew; he was going to SES as well. I felt much better after that. His name was Alex (Aleks in Esperanto) and he was from France but living in Belgium.

Once in Bratislava, we had to take a couple of buses, the route numbers of which I was fortunate enough to write down. They took us to a bus station, where we would set out for Modra-Harmonia. Eventually, we were on our way. It wasn't a long way away, but there were a lot of stops, so it took a little over an hour.

We arrived only five minutes after the (official) end of registration. We took a quiz so they could determine our level of Esperanto expertise, and then it was time for dinner. The food was actually somewhat good. After that were cheesy ice-breakers. Andy and I also checked out the dorm room we were staying in. It was actually better than a lot of the places we had stayed before. We even had our own bathroom... with a toilet and a shower!

Andy was afraid that there wouldn't be a lot of people our age there, but young people seem to be the majority. There are also middle-aged people, old people, and a few little kids. They generally seem to be from various European countries, but there are a few from the Americas, including a couple of Canadians, a girl from Costa Rica, and one other (USA) American. I would estimate that there are about 100 participants here.

Saturday was the first full day. In the morning were the classes. Based on my quiz results, I had been sorted into the fourth and most advanced group. Andy was in the group too. Unlike the other groups, we didn't talk too much about grammar; instead we talked about news from the Espreranto press and traditions from various countries. There was a lot of group work and discussion. There were also lots of laughs.

For the afternoon, there was an excursion to the city of Modra-Harmonia. A local guy showed us around, with one of the organizers translating from Slovak to Esperanto. There wasn't much to see besides the remains of the old city wall. The church was interesting because its clock tower had a star and crescent on top. The locals apparently added it long ago to make the invading Turks think that they had already conquered the town so they would move on. Apparently it worked.

After that, we went to an ice cream shop for cheap but delicious ice cream. It needs no occasion.

That evening, a local music group performed Slovak folk songs, some in Slovak, some in Esperanto. After that was a wine tasting, so of course, I had to taste some of the local wines they offered. As you might imagine, there was a lot of merriment after that. The folk group came out and performed Italian, American, and other kinds of traditional songs. This only increased the merrymaking.

I chatted with a Russian girl I had met earlier that day. Her name was Katja. We talked and talked. Even after the band left and the wine was all gone, we talked. We talked until we were a couple of the last people in the room. She seemed to take a liking to me. As we walked back to the dorms, we discovered that our rooms were next to each other.

On Sunday, there were classes in the morning as well, except Andy wasn't there because he slept in. In the afternoon was an excursion to a castle called Red Stone or somesuch thing. Katja and I sat with each other on the bus. The castle itself was sort of interesting; we had a tour guide (and translator) who took us through the rooms, which were decked out in various styles. It wasn't the fanciest castle I had ever been in, but it was probably very good in its temporal and spacial context.

Unlike the Alamo, this castle had a basement, and it was the coolest part... literally!! It was also pretty spacious. You could have had a banquet down there.

The second part of the excursion was to go back into town and see some pottery being made. That was kind of interesting, but it was more interesting after that to go back to the ice cream shop, which Katja and I did. We continued to hang out even after that; we took a walk to a nearby restaurant. She had tea; I got a Coke.

In the evening was a concert by Georgo Handzlik, a Esperanto singer whose songs were sometimes funny, sometimes serious. After that, it was late, but I helped Katja with her massive amounts of homework (she's in a different group), explaining (among other things) every preposition in the language. I think it helped me a little with my own Esperanto, but I also think that she just wanted to see me try to explain every preposition in the language. She's actually a rather competent speaker.

While she and her roommate (the Costa Rican girl) were asking for help, the clock figuratively struck midnight. I was 20. Interestingly, my twin sister at home in the US would still be a teenager for another six hours. I thought that was interesting.

I woke up on my birthday morning for another Esperanto-filled day. Due to scheduling conflicts, our classes and meals were now in the same building as the dorm rooms. At breakfast, Katja gave me a postcard with a very special birthday message written on it. Andy slept in again, but I attended the class.

Since then I've just been hanging out; there's no excursion today. I've mostly spent my time with Katja (we took a long walk outside and had some Czech soda at the same restaurant), but for some reason she didn't want to sit around for over an hour as I wrote this. I'd better make it quick.

Happy birthday to me!