The Landa Kongreso: Monday and beyond
Mon Jun 07, 2010 21:43 (UTC -5)This is the final post in a three-part… blah blah blah, you don’t care.
On Monday morning, I attended the closing ceremony of the conference. Well, there wasn’t much ceremony; the term used in Esperanto means “solemn closing.” It wasn’t especially solemn either. It was mainly a series of closing remarks, capped off with a singing of “La Espero.”
The organizers of the convention presented some statistics, most notably that the attendance was over 100. The president of Esperanto-USA gave some details about the next national convention, which will be held at the University of California, Berkeley, in early June 2011, and the one after that, which will be held in north Texas in 2012.
I was the only college-age kid to attend the closing ceremony. Once that was over, I rejoined the others in the lobby. Andy, Darcy, and I got to talking about exciting it was to be with so many other young Esperantists and how to keep the energy going. For a while, Esperanto-USA had had an active youth branch called USEJ. We decided bring USEJ back to life by starting up an IRC channel where we could constantly chat with each other and by having regular voice chats online. We also decided to look into the possibility of having a national youth congress in South Florida in the winter.
I’ve come back energized, and I’ve come back with a goal. I want to take new Esperantists with me to Berkeley next year. That means Andy and I will have to work hard to attract new members to our club and help them learn Esperanto, but it’s a worthwhile challenge.
I didn’t actually go to DC at all during the trip, even on the drive to the train station. Yes, instead of flying back to Florida, we took the Auto Train with Andy’s dad and Andy’s dad’s car, which Andy is now using. It was actually pretty comfortable, and I even expected to sleep at one point. I don’t think I actually did; I should have known better. But the complementary dinner and breakfast were pretty good, and it was fun to see “America at see level” (Amtrak’s former or maybe current tagline).
We arrived in Sanford, Florida, on Tuesday morning, and we drove to Gainesville. As soon as we made it to UF, I raced into my public speaking class, which was already in progress. I was going to have to deliver an impromptu speech. We had each submitted a quotation, and then when it was our turn to give a speech, we had to pick one of them at random and and deliver a speech about our reaction to it.
For some reason, there weren’t as many quotes as there were people, and I was the last to go, so I was left with none. The teacher asked people to submit some more, so I had fresh pickin’s. I chose:
“We are not here merely to make a living, we are here to enrich the world.”
—Woodrow Wilson
Within three minutes, I explained a little bit about what Esperanto is all about and about the experience I had had with other Esperantists over the long weekend. I tied it all together by explaining the shared hope that Esperanto can help enrich the world. I got a strong round of applause, and people had more questions for me after the speech. I got a 98% on the assignment.
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6 comments
#1 by Kate: Tue Jun 08, 2010 00:13 (UTC -5)
Also to IJK, maybe? :) It might turn out to be the second “trip of a lifetime” (or at least “exploring ex-USSR of a lifetime”), ’cause I’m a maniac of travelling.
Anyway, you and Andy will have to do a good promotional program with regular meetings. I hope it will work out! The courses at SES were fun, I think you could use their methods. I suppose that one of the main things is to let people feel creative by making their own scenes or anything like that, which needs fantasy. In our group at SES we really enjoyed making funny scenes, it was very amusing. Did Darcy share useful advices with you?
#2 by Jordon Kalilich: Tue Jun 08, 2010 15:47 (UTC -5)
I’m not so sure we’ll be able to get people to the IJK. We should probably just see if we can take people to the national congress first.
Darcy did give good advice. She said to tell people that Esperanto is fun and to make all of the meetings fun. Using your imagination sounds like fun, so we should have people make up scenes.
#3 by Kriso: Tue Jun 08, 2010 21:34 (UTC -5)
Aaah…”La Espero”–what fun!
#4 by Luke: Wed Jun 09, 2010 00:52 (UTC -5)
Jordon, do you know who is going to be living in Berkeley or San Francisco this time next year?
#5 by Jordon Kalilich: Wed Jun 09, 2010 01:33 (UTC -5)
I did think about that.
#6 by Kate: Wed Jun 09, 2010 08:21 (UTC -5)
Well, maybe some people would want to go to the national congress and others would choose the IJK, ’cause it’s more for young people, or any other event… There are a lot of events to choose. Roskilde is also cool, one only has to buy tickets to Denmark and have some pocket money, ’cause living, food and the entrance ticket are given for 3x8hrs labour. I’ll check it out soon :P My words might sound too optimistic, maybe, but if people have a friend who’s already going, everything is much easier for them and they can decide to go even if they’re not sure. The idea of a congress in Florida sounds good. :) Though organization of the event and its financial part can take a lot of time and efforts, but it’s worth.