Photo woes

Tue Feb 09, 2010 18:55 EST (UTC -5)

Okay, I can't remember everything I've ever done. Kate gently reminded me about one of the more interesting gifts she brought me during her stay. Remember how I said I was on the cover of an Esperanto magazine but I didn't have a copy of it? Kate brought two copies, one for me and one for my parents. Here it is:

The photo was taken at last year's International Youth Congress of Esperanto in Liberec, Czech Republic. From left to right are Esperantists from South Korea, Togo, Ukraine, and Vietnam. And then there's me.

Another postscript: When I got home after seeing Kate off, I noticed that the dry erase board on the refrigerator still had a Russian sentence that Kate had written. I took a picture of the board and then went to put the picture on my computer. But... the camera wouldn't read my memory card. My last memory card.

It had already stopped reading each the others, most recently a few days before. It was now official: I really needed a new camera. My beloved Sony DSC-P73 was a brick.

I had been wanting to buy a new camera for a while, but now I really have a good excuse. My ideal camera is a compact point-and-shoot with manual controls. Oh, and it has to take good pictures. I don't ask for much, you see. But it turns out that new lower-end point-and-shoots have done away with manual configuration entirely, leaving me with no choice but to jump up to the next price range.

I didn't want to get a Sony again because I knew how much they love pushing their own proprietary formats, particularly their Memory Stick storage format for cameras. My dad pointed out that some of their new cameras also accept SD cards, which have apparently become the standard while I've been busy fiddling with Memory Sticks.

That made me feel a little better, and knowing that Sony products tend to give you a lot of bang for your buck, I had a look at what Sony had to offer. The DSC-H20 and the DSC-HX5V caught my eye. I liked the former because it was cheaper and had already been released. I liked the latter because it was smaller, didn't have a lens cap, took SD cards, and shot higher-quality video (in stereo, yet).

I've decided to go for the HX5V, but apparently it's not coming out until the end of March. Till then, I am cameraless, which kind of sucks because... I'm going to Washington, DC this weekend!!

That's right. I'm the secretary of the UF chapter of Students for Free Culture, and we've decided (sort of at the last minute) to make the trek to George Washington University for the organization's Free Culture Conference 2010 this weekend. We'll be staying with Gavin Baker, the legendary founder of our chapter whom I've never met (apparently everyone else who's going has.

It won't be snowing, but it will have snowed, so it'll be the first time I actually see snow. (what jordan u've never seen sno? what is wrong with you, dont u ever travel in the winter?? its not like its incovenient or anything...) I'm pretty excited about that. I should have enough warm clothes, but I think I'll need boots or something to actually walk through the stuff.

If you have a car, you may be interested in this: How to Decode Your Car's VIN. (Via Lifehacker)

Scientology Sucks is a contest in which participants submit videos of themselves pranking the Scientology cult. The submissions should be posted online tomorrow, and the winners (as judged by the judges) will receive cash prizes.

Kate's visit, part five

Wed Feb 03, 2010 01:36 EST (UTC -5)

I was tired on Monday night, the 18th, but Kate had been wanting to jam with me and Andy. She had brought sheet music for a couple of songs—"Sunshine of Your Love" and "Tears in Heaven"—and we played them in Andy's room. Kate played Andy's keyboard, Andy played his bass, and I played my guitar. Kate also sang on "Sunshine of Your Love."

The next day was the Kate's last full day with me. She and I had Krishna lunch on campus again. After lunch, she spent a while in one of the computer labs making arrangements for the last leg of her trip, a few more days in New York. Later, she joined me for my Databases class.

In the evening, Andy, Kate, and I had a good video chat with Kate's French-Canadian friend. We mostly used Esperanto, but we slipped into English sometimes because her friend was more of a beginner. After that, Kate said her goodbyes to Andy in case we didn't get a chance to see him in the morning.

Later, I tried figuring out how we would get to the Greyhound station by bus (it's conveniently not located along a bus route). After much frustration in trying to figure out the best combination of buses, which would have taken at least an hour and a half anyway, Kate suggested that we call for a taxi.

Kate woke up at 6:15 on Wednesday, January 20. Her alarm woke me up, but I lay in bed for a while, trying to go back to sleep. At 7:00, I got up and prepared her usual breakfast of bread and cheese. Even though she was packing her things frantically, I thought we would be late for our cab, which was arriving at 7:30. But somehow, she managed to pull it off, and we were early. She got another chance to say goodbye to Andy, and we went outside, where the taxi was waiting for us.

It was cold and foggy, and I couldn't remember the last time I was out that early. The drive to the bus station seemed very long. It was essentially a drive across town through some minor streets. Along one of the streets were statues of the planets in planetary order. I hadn't seen them since my visits to Gainesville as a child, and since I had moved here to go to college, I had always wondered where they were.

The cab driver made small talk, asking how we knew each other and what Kate thought of the country and things like that. I didn't really feel like answering questions, but I did my best. After all, being a taxi driver has to be one of the most boring jobs. At one point, he got a call on his cell phone, apparently from his son. "Not now," he said, "Daddy's got people in the car." I didn't ask him about it.

Finally, we arrived at the bus station. I had never been to a Greyhound station before. It was pretty much a large room with a ticket desk, some rows of benches, and a few other people. It didn't look fancy, but I should have expected as much. We were about a half an hour early, so I sat next to Kate for the last time, away from the TV that was competing for my attention.

We exchanged words. I could see the tears coming down from her eyes. I was starting to get emotional too. This was it.

The bus came. We shared one last kiss, and she got on.

She sat by the window where I could see her. I fought back tears. But she smiled.

She smiled, and I smiled back. The bus moved forward. I followed it through the parking lot until it stopped at the street. She smiled at me again.

The bus turned right and drove away.

I walked the other way, toward the nearest major road, where I could hopefully catch a bus to campus. Cars zoomed past me. It was still kind of cold.

I saw Firpo's, a diner that we used to go to when I visited Gainesville as a kid. At least, it used to be Firpo's. It was something different now.

Not far away was my bus stop. According to the bus schedule that was posted there, I had missed the bus by five minutes and would have to wait 55 minutes for the next one. I decided to keep walking instead.

One of my pet peeves is when people treat walking as a last resort, a mode of transportation for only the most destitute and desperate—worse, even, than riding the bus. People are always oddly fascinated if I tell them I spent more than 15 minutes walking to get somewhere, as if using my legs as nature intended were something I should be ashamed of. But what could be more beneficial? It's good exercise, it's entertaining, and you're actually getting something done.

So, I kept walking. I had never seen this part of town. It looked like a lot of other parts, with gas stations, small strip malls, and even some neighborhoods. I passed by a historic house. I had never heard of it, but it was apparently one of the oldest in the city, dating from before the Civil War. I never would have been able to read the historical marker if I were in a car or a bus.

I kept walking. On the opposite side of the road, there was a real estate agent's office with a marquee in front. I expected it to say something about houses, but it said:

LET GO OF
WHAT EVER HOLDS
YOU BACK

Walking further, I made it to University Avenue and started walking toward campus. This was the way I had walked with Kate when I first met up with her 12 days ago, and now I was making the same walk alone.

I made it to campus and to the building where I work. I had been walking for a little less than an hour. The sun had come up some more, but it was still early for me; I wasn't supposed to be at work for another hour. But I got started early.

My room seems quiet and empty without Kate here. All of her stuff is gone except for a few things that now decorate my room: the monthly calendar of St. Petersburg, a few more yearly calendars printed on single sheets of paper, a New York City subway map, a tiger-shaped bag containing coins from around the world, and a couple of record albums: a Soviet Beatles compilation album called A Taste of Honey and Paul McCartney's Снова в СССР.

On my desk, she left a sticky note that she had written on early in her stay. It reads:

Life is a movie
without
a happy end.

Kate's visit, part three

Fri Jan 29, 2010 01:03 EST (UTC -5)

It was Tuesday, January 12. (I'm really falling behind here.) I went to work/school, and Kate met up with me for lunch. We had the infamous/not-really-infamous Krishna Lunch, served on the Plaza of the Americas outside my workplace, Peabody Hall. Fortunately, Kate liked the food.

After lunch, Kate sat in on my classes. First, there was Numerical Analysis (<sarcasm>fun!</sarcasm>), and later, Databases. Kate actually works with databases and stuff like that, so as the professor was giving a lecture on the basics of SQL, Kate told me that she could probably give the lecture herself. I wouldn't doubt it.

Tuesday evening was our Esperanto Club meeting in which we would introduce a real Esperanto speaker from an exotic land. I invited 100 people on Facebook, and only one showed up. I blame myself for not promoting the event more, but I didn't promote it very much because I didn't have enough time to reserve a room. So I blame myself for not reserving a room before winter break, although I'm not sure if that was possible, so maybe I shouldn't beat myself up over it. Anyway, the show went on, and we explained to the one guy there how Kate learned and had used Esperanto.

I think it was that night that Kate gave Andy and me a primer on the Russian alphabet. Andy was interested in learning Russian (or maybe just the alphabet, I'm not sure), so we went over the vowels and then the consonants. It took a while—there are a lot of them, and Andy and I were struggling to pronounce some of them. I thought it might be hard to learn a new alphabet, but surprisingly, in the weeks that have followed, I've been able to sort of pronounce Russian words that I see.

On Wednesday, Kate got ready in time to go with me to work and class. Wednesdays are kind of frantic for me this semester, so we grabbed a quick lunch at the KFC Express on campus. Kate didn't really like the food, but I could have guessed as much. I'm glad she tried it, anyway. After that, she sat in on my other classes, Software Engineering and Accounting.

We stayed on campus for dinner because Kate was interested in attending a lecture. We ate at Pollo Tropical at the Reitz Union, and she loved it, which made me happy. (Wikipedia has some bare facts on Pollo Tropical for those of you unfortunate enough not to be graced by its presence within a reasonable distance.) After that, we went to the presentation. A professor from UC Irvine talked about the history of criminal identification technologies, including the rise of fingerprinting and then DNA.

On Thursday, I had my weekly lunch with my sister. We eat at a different place each week, and this week, it was Moe's. She brought along her friend Nathalie, and I, of course, brought Kate. We didn't have much time, but Kate and my sister chatted it up.

Kate had been wanting to take an official tour. She had looked into it and said that there would be one starting at 2:00, so we hurried over to the Welcome Center after lunch. I was going to be late for Numerical Analysis, and I wasn't sure if they gave tours to non-prospective-students, but I thought we should give it a shot. When they asked about her potential relationship to the university, I just told them that she was a junior computer-science major at PBCC looking to transfer, and when asked why I was doing most of the talking for her, I just said her English wasn't very good (even though it is, I hasten to point out). We had to give her contact information, so I wrote a fake address, and we hurriedly parted ways: my class had just started, and her tour had just started.

Later, while I was at work, she said she had gotten lost from the tour group and would meet me at my Databases class. So she met me there, and afterward, we had a little bit of time to grab coffee (well, she grabbed coffee and I helped her drink it). After that, we went to the Gator Freethought meeting. Kate had asked about any student organizations she might be interested in, so I suggested Gator Freethought, which promotes science, skepticism, and critical thinking. The topic of the meeting was logical fallacies, which I thought was kind of interesting, but the discussion was pretty chaotic, so I wasn't sure how much of it Kate could follow.

So that was Thursday.

Back to the present for a moment. Today (well, yesterday, since I'm writing this after midnight) I found out that J.D. Salinger had died.

I first read The Catcher in the Rye in my freshman year of high school. It was influential on me, as I noted at the time:

(As a side note, my writing may seem unusually informal today. That's because I have to read The Catcher in the Rye for English, and it's written in very informal speech. It's a good book, if you really want to know. I was actually reading it today while I was waiting for about five hours for my sister to get off the lousy computer. I was that much into the darn book. I mean it.)

Ha ha. I didn't say "damn."

Anyway, The Catcher in the Rye instantly became one of my favorite books, and it's one of the few that I still reread with any regularity. In fact, I was just thinking of picking it up again the next time I go home, which will probably be soon. After recent re-readings, I've wondered whether I can still identify with Holden Caulfield. I'm older than him now, after all, and I'm in college. Who's to know? I guess I'll have to keep reading to find out.

The Onion has responded to the news in the style of The Catcher in the Rye: Bunch Of Phonies Mourn J.D. Salinger. It actually works well if you think about it.

Kate's visit, part one

Thu Jan 21, 2010 23:59 EST (UTC -5)

I have returned. Actually, I didn't go anywhere. Well, actually, I did go somewhere for part of the time, but that doesn't really have to do with it.

I met Kate at an Esperanto event over the summer. I didn't think I'd ever see her again, but we stayed in contact, and she came to visit me. I had her as a guest for some twelve days, which I'll try my best to recount over the next two, three, or however many posts.

On Friday, January 8, she flew from Washington to Orlando and took a bus to Gainesville. We had agreed to meet at the Bo Diddley Community Plaza downtown sometime after 4:00, which was when her bus arrived and my last class got out. I walked downtown. It was cold, and the sky was gray. I was hoping we could do something downtown because there were some interesting things to do there.

I got to the plaza and waited there for a while, taking inventory of the sketchy folks hanging around and making sure none of them were going to sneak up on me. Clearly, this wouldn't be a good place to go for a stroll. On one turn-around, I saw her approaching on the plaza from the opposite direction I was expecting. We greeted each other in Esperanto and hugged. She had a large backpack and was dressed more warmly than I was.

It was cold and there was nothing to do there, so I figured we should just go back to my apartment. We walked back toward campus, and I reminded her to take pictures of anything she thought looked interesting. We talked about how her trip had been so far and how pleasantly surprised we were to see each other again. We made it back to campus, where I gave a mini-tour in which I talked about everything we saw. Then we took the bus back to my apartment.

Once she got settled in, or maybe even before, we exchanged gifts. Mine were a Florida Gators sweater for cold weather (she had said that she was terribly cold in New York) and a Gators tank top for the hopefully but not actually warmer climes of North Central Florida. (Yeah, I know: "Boo," "Gators suck," etc.) Kate presented me with a monthly calendar of St. Petersburg, where she currently lives. I hung it up right away. It's in Russian and English, and I have it directly above my computer, so I can see that this month is Январь.

We did a lot of things, and it's been kind of a while now, so there may be some gaps or question marks in the narrative. As I recall, Andy was there to say hello to her (he was traveling with me when I met Kate, so he had already met her too). She wanted some tea, and, as I expected, Andy was there to provide. He didn't have the exact kind she most wanted to drink, but she drank the regular Lipton stuff anyway. I mentioned that I didn't exactly know how to make tea, and they joked about it. I would soon be making lots of tea for Kate, who bestowed on me the nickname "Mr. Teamaker."

Later, Andy's dad came over and got to meet Kate. I hadn't heard Kate speak much English, so it was interesting to hear. Andy and his dad went out to eat and made a run to the grocery store after. They asked if we wanted anything, so Kate asked for some things like bread, cheese, and fruit. Later, they brought back the food, and Kate enjoyed her bread and cheese.

On Saturday, I believe it was, Kate surprised me by saying that she wanted to speak Esperanto and English on alternate days so she could practice both. Saturday was an English day. I had made a list of things to do in Gainesville, and we thought about what might be best for that day. After a slow morning, we went to the Harn Museum of Art on the UF campus; it was open, easy to get to, and free. Also, I had never been there, so it would be a new experience for me as well.

I'd seen some pretty crappy art galleries in my time, so I was pleased when the art they had was not so crappy. There was a collection of stuff by American artists, mainly from the early 20th century. New York came up in a lot of the paintings, and I asked Kate if she had been to the places they showed. There were also some African and East Asian artifacts.

By the time we got out of the museum, it was cold. We stood around for a few minutes waiting for the bus when Kate mentioned that she wanted to stop at the supermarket along the way. Being the American that I am, I at first scoffed at her suggestion that we take the 10-minute walk there instead of waiting for the bus. Then I caved, realizing that we could spend up to an hour in the cold while waiting for the bus.

At the supermarket, Kate bought some of her favorite things, including yogurt. I was hoping we could have pasta for dinner with Andy, so I got some tomato sauce. We made it back to the apartment and got cookin'. Actually, Kate and Andy were kind enough to do most of the work. I insisted that Kate didn't have to do anything because she was the guest, but she wanted to help out.

We enjoyed our dinner in what might be called the dining room, a small area outside Andy's room that he had just decorated (the dining room, not Andy's room, although he had just decorated his room as well). We somehow got on the subject of animal onomatopoeias, and I learned that Russian dogs say "guff." We also practiced our own animal noises, and that's how barking (guffing?) became a running joke among us.

I didn't expect to use up that many bytes describing just two days, but this post is getting long and it's almost midnight, so I'll stop here for now and continue the narrative later. In the meantime, enjoy these links.

Here's a chart explaining How to Use an Apostrophe. (Via Lifehacker)

Here's another chart: Where Should I Eat? Fast Food Edition.

The visitor

Tue Dec 15, 2009 23:58 EST (UTC -5)

I survived Finals Week '09. Well, Finals Week Fall '09, to be exact. And, presumably, every previous one. (T-shirt idea: "I survived the first x years of my life.")

Now, have I really not mentioned Katja here since the summer? It seems that I haven't. This must be corrected.

I met her at an Esperanto event in Slovakia. She's Russian. Rather than communicating in English or Russian (the latter of which I don't know—ФЯ DФ I ИФШ?—eh, no, I don't), we used Esperanto. Her name is Ekaterina, which is Russian for Catherine, and her nickname is Katya. In Esperanto that's spelled Katja, and when speaking English, she goes by Kate.

Since meeting over the summer, we've stayed in touch, still writing to each other in Esperanto. (You may recognize Kate as the author of some recent comments on this here blog.) And as it happens, she had been planning to come to the States, so she's going to drop by when she's here early next year, i.e., in a few weeks. And no, it really isn't just to see me; she had been planning the trip before we met. Even so, it'll be really cool to have someone visit me from so far away.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to having her as a guest here in Gainesville (and at my home in South Florida, since we'll have a three-day weekend).

Stay tuned, because more exciting Europe '09 follow-ups are on the horizon. But first, I'm heading home for winter break. Yeeeaah!

Need to know how to pronounce a famous (or currently newsworthy) person's name? The Name Engine has got you covered. I had been wondering about Ndamukong Suh. And hey, it looks like their whole directory of sound files is accidentally browsable. (Via J-Walk Blog)

A graph: A Graphic History of Newspaper Circulation Over the Last Two Decades. (Via waxy.org)

There's nothing to it

Fri Sep 18, 2009 22:59 EST (UTC -5)

The Esperanto Club at UF kicked off its second year on Tuesday. Andy and I presented the story of our summer and how we used Esperanto.

The photo-within-a-photo you see there was taken while I was lining up to give a greeting at the Cultural Language Festival, which was part of the International Youth Congress of Esperanto in the Czech Republic. I'm on the far right; the others, from left to right, are South Korean, Togolese, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese. And yes, people from Togo are Togolese. I looked that up. (Hint to geography-types: if feel you have to add an extra letter when tacking on -ese, try a different suffix. I would have guessed "Togoan.") Incidentally, Andy had at least one good conversation with the South Korean, and I later hung out with the Ukrainian in Berlin (also mentioned in the aforelinked post, which is extremely long and thus covers a rather long time period).

And apparently, this photo was published on the cover of La Ondo de Esperanto (The Wave of Esperanto), a magazine I used to subscribe to but, alas, don't any longer. I'll try to hunt down a copy.

In my last post, I discussed my ambivalence about eating Krishna Lunch on campus. In the end, I didn't feel so ambivalent about it at all, and my sister and I enjoyed Krishna Lunch together yesterday. I think they have something different each day of the week. I hadn't had Krishna Lunch too many times before, but I must have had it on a Thursday because I recognized the food: rice and some yellow stuff with salad and some sweet blueberry-flavored mashed-potato-looking thing.

This didn't occur to me before, but I'm surprised that Aramark, the company that monopolistically runs all eating establishments on campus, allows Krishna Lunch to operate. It wouldn't surprise me if Aramark had considered giving the Krishnas the boot—they do siphon off Aramark's business, after all—only to realize that there would be rioting in the streets if students didn't have their $4 "karma-free" plates. (I say "karma-free" in quotation marks because karma isn't real.)

Also, I mentioned Krishna Lunch in 2006, when the price (technically, suggested donation) was a mere $3. It rose recently to little indignation.

For the nerds: song lyrics as pseudocode. (Via The Presurfer)

Art: the Preamble of the Constitution of the United States, spelled out on license plates from each state. (Via The Presurfer)

PR blitz

Sat Sep 12, 2009 09:56 EST (UTC -5)

I was sick last weekend (for the millionth time, I did not have the swine flu), and then I had a busy week.

Why was my week so busy? I've been preparing for the Esperanto Club's first meeting of the year. Per a reader's request, I'll answer some questions about the club here.

The club is simply called the Esperanto Club. We sometimes use the qualifier "...at UF" to distinguish it from other Esperanto clubs. Our Facebook group is our online source of information. We post announcements and relevant links there. We typically teach the language at our meetings, but we'll probably branch out to other topics once people get the hang of it.

For this year's first meeting, Andy and I are going to talk about how we got around Europe with Esperanto. I wrote to my friend at a student-run newspaper asking her to write a story (she hasn't responded), I submitted a short description for the newspaper's "What's Happening" column (it was published yesterday and will probably continue to run), I submitted a 500-word guest article to the newspaper (nothing has come from that, of course), and I submitted a description to the daily e-mail newsletter for honors students (it was published yesterday and will continue to run) and to the general university e-mail newsletter (which goes out on Mondays). Oh, and Andy and I manned a table at the Student Organization Fair all day Thursday.

Our presentation, "Breaking Down Borders with Esperanto," will take place on Tuesday evening. On the off chance that a UF student or Gainesvillian is reading this and hasn't heard of the event before and would be interested in going, here's the event page with more details.

The New York Times has an interactive graph showing How Different Groups Spend Their Day. (Via J-Walk Blog)

After the recent death of John Hughes, a woman wrote about how she had been the Hollywood director's pen pal when she was a teenager. A touching story. (Via waxy.org)

When could you tell your relationship was over? It Was Over When... (Via J-Walk Blog)

The club scene

Mon Aug 31, 2009 22:10 EST (UTC -5)

As I took a seat in one of my classes today, the guy next to me said, "World of Stuff?"

He explained that he'd been to this web site and wanted to freak me out by randomly mentioning it. I asked how he had heard of it, and he said he couldn't remember, but he remembered my face, presumably from the About Me page.

I wish that happened more often. Thanks, random dude!

As this school year has been getting up to speed, student organizations that have been dormant over the summer are springing back to life. I'm active in several organizations, so this means exciting haps for me.

Yesterday, I handed out flyers for Get Carded on campus. Actually, we weren't handing them out as much as going into dorms and putting them in residents' boxes. Not the mailboxes, but they also have these, like... cubbies. Yeah. They have cubbies. It was weird going to campus on a Sunday and seeing people mulling around because for two years, I was mulling around with them. In fact, one of the dorms I went to was Hume Hall, the dorm where I lived for two years. From what I saw, it's the same as it was a few months ago, when I last lived there.

Florida Free Culture, of which I'm now the secretary, is getting into full swing as well. There's already been an organizational meeting, during which many events were planned or at least discussed. Coming up soon are the Student Organization Fair, at which FFC will be present, and Free Your PC, our signature event during which we install antivirus software and free software on students' computers.

And then there's my own club, the Esperanto Club. Ah, yes. I'm hoping to have an even better year than last year, which should be pretty easy. For our first meeting, Andy and I will be talking not only about Esperanto but also about how we used it throughout our epic trip to Europe this summer. If we can drum up enough publicity to attract people who'll want to hear about our amazing story and this exciting language, this year will definitely be a success.

Here's an awesome time-lapse video that tracks the sun around the sky for a week near one of the poles. (Via The Presurfer)

Peter over at Greatplay.net came up with a cool idea that I wish I'd thought of: a random featured article from Wikipedia.

If someone told you they couldn't send e-mail to people over 500 miles away, would you say they were crazy? That's probably what this one guy thought when he was confronted with just that problem. Find out how the case of the 500-mile e-mail was solved.

Homeward bound: the incredible journey

Thu Jul 30, 2009 13:31 EST (UTC -5)

Well, kiddies, it happened. My camera's new 1 GB memory card is not functioning. It's not even the camera's fault this time, as my other cards are just fine. That's good news, but I wish I could take 600 photos at a time rather than about 79. (What an odd number, I know. The 16 MB card that came with my camera holds 8 photos. My trusty 128 MB card supposedly holds 64, but I can squeeze out 71.) Fortunately, I lost only a few photos (from Sunday night's concert by the local band).

Anyway, when we last met, I was at the International Youth Congress of Esperanto (IJK) in Liberec, Czech Republic, and it is to that event which we now return.

Last Monday night's entertainment was a quiz show in the style of those hilarious British radio program(me)s. Think "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" (which originally was a British radio show) and that show on NPR where people have to guess the definitions of obscure words. Its name escapes me, but I know it's cheesy. If I do think of it before I post this, I'll probably forget to add it in here. Anyway, the Esperanto quiz show was just as funny, if not funnier. Maybe it helped that the host (sorry, presenter) was British.

Tuesday was the big excursion to Prague. Everyone has told me that Prague is a wonderful city, so I wanted to see exactly how wonderful it was. We started out by taking a tour of the city in an old trolley that I believe was built in 1928 or 1929.

Well, it wasn't really a tour because we didn't have a tour guide telling us what everything was. Actually, one of the IJK organizers was there and explained everything for us, so I guess it was a tour. When the ride ended, we explored the city on foot as a group. We saw some old churches and plazas and things. I kept wondering when we would stop for lunch; they gave us food but no time to eat it, so people were eating as we walked around. I did the same eventually.

One of the highlights of the morning was going to the presidential palace. The organizers of the IJK still remembered a remark that the Czech President had made a year and a half ago. He said, "Pan-Europeanism is artificial and dead, like Esperanto." So our group thought it would be nice to take a picture with one of the guards outside the presidential palace and maybe send it to the President.

That guard wasn't supposed to move or anything, but dang if he didn't look uncomfortable standing there.

Near the palace you can get a great view of the city. As the group moved on, I lingered a bit to check it out.

After that, we made our way to the Charles Bridge, which is apparently an old and famous pedestrian bridge in the city. As with many touristy places, it was filled with artists and musicians and beggars. They were also renovating a section of it. Despite all that, I liked it and wished I could stay longer. I admired the statues that lined the bridge and the view of the river.

My group was the sciencey group, so we saw some scientific sights. In particular, we saw a historic weather station (which I didn't take a picture of because it looked like a giant white box hanging out of a window, and besides, I was running out of pictures) and went to the house where Johannes "The Earth Revolves Around the Sun" Kepler once lived. We didn't go inside, but outside was a small courtyard with a small fountain dedicated to him.

Later, we moved on to what is probably one of the world's most famous clocks. It's that crazy clock thing with, like, 4 hands and 3 faces. You'd know it if you saw it, so look!

We (and a lot of other people) hung around until the top of the hour so we could see the famous show that the clock puts on every hour. It wasn't so spectacular, actually. A couple of windows open and you can see little apostles shuffling by. That's basically it.

After that, we finally had about an hour of free time. I spend time with my new Canadian friend, Gregory. We went to a cafe so he could get something to drink, and then we went to a souvenir shop so he could get some souvenirs. Then we strolled to the statue where we were supposed to meet with everybody. After that, we all went over to the bus and went back to Liberec.

Prague is indeed a nice city. I wish I could have spent a little more time there, particularly down by the river. There are some islands in the river that looked particularly interesting. Our unofficial tour guide said that the World Congress of Esperanto was held on one of the islands in 1996. It must have been pretty large because that's a big event. Anyway, in conclusion, everyone is right about Prague.

In the evening, there was supposed to be a concert by one Kim, an Esperantist and accordionist. When I heard that the concert was being moved to the roof of the building, I thought it was a joke. But I saw too many people going upstairs, so I decided to follow them. Sure enough, people were setting up equipment, and a lot of the audience was already there.

Even though Kim didn't have much accompaniment, he had everyone singing along in Esperanto.

A guitarist named JoMo joined him for the last number. I had actually had lunch with JoMo the day before, not knowing he would be part of the entertainment. It's funny how those things work out!

On Wednesday, Andy and I did not attend the next class on how to teach Esperanto. I went to a presentation about E@I, the organization behind many Esperanto projects on the Internet, including lernu.net. In the afternoon, I was just chillin' when it was pointed out to me that I should probably be at the TEJO meeting that was going on right then.

Apparently, Darcy Ross was supposed to represent USEJ (US Esperanto Youth Organization) at the meeting of TEJO (Worldwide Esperanto Youth Organization), but since she didn't go to the IJK, she gave her voting power to me and Andy. So I sat in on the meeting, but since I didn't know what anything was about, I didn't vote. Actually, I didn't even abstain; I abstained from abstaining. It took me a while to convince myself that I was supposed to be there.

Besides voting on officers and things like that, they decided to write a resolution or declaration along the theme of the congress (i.e., freedom). Apparently, this was a tradition that had not been followed very much in recent years, but they wanted to make a statement to the Czech President about the utility and utter non-deadness of Esperanto.

After that, I attended a presentation about the situation in Israel and Palestine, which I thought was pretty interesting. I think you can really only scratch the surface in an hour, but it was relatively informative.

The evening's entertainment was a performance by JoMo in the town square. It was kind of a long walk (about 30 minutes), but it was nice to get out and see the city. I had heard that he was known for singing in a lot of different languages, and I was vaguely aware that there was some Guinness world record involved. (I think they assumed that everyone already knew everything about him.)

With just a guitar, he performed a lot of rockin' numbers that got the crowd moving. Almost every song was in a different language. Besides the usual suspects such as French, Spanish, German, and Portuguese, he sang songs in Basque, Ukrainian, Serbo-Croatian, and Mohawk. He also sang a Greek song in Dutch. For the curious, his English-language song was "Kansas City," and I'd have to say that my favorite number was "Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand." Oh, and Kim joined him for the later numbers. The finale was in Esperanto.

On Thursday morning, I attended a presentation called, "Wikipedia: What, Why, How." The "how" part was especially interesting because the lecturer got online and actually created an article for the people to see. I thought everyone at the presentation would already be basically familiar with Wikipedia, but it was nice to see how impressed some people were with how easy the site is to use.

In the afternoon, instead of lectures and things, we had a Cultural/Language Festival in the town square. People from a certain country or region could get together and set up a booth to show off their culture to the other Esperantists (and, with the help of a translator, to the townspeople). Seeing all these booths decked out with flags and maps and posters and food and alcoholic beverages made it easy to see how many countries were being represented at the IJK.

Not every country had a booth, though. As I was digging the different cultures, everyone kept asking me why there was no American booth. Several reasons: there were only a few Americans at the IJK, we were all too lazy, some of us didn't even show up to the festival, we didn't have anything from home to show off, everybody already knows all about our culture (or lack thereof), we can't fix our reputation in the world from behind a booth, etc. I joked that the American booth was the McDonald's in the town square. I just thought the Europeans would find it funny; I don't want to remind myself of how much everyone hates American culture.

The countries and regions represented were, in no particular order: Switzerland, the Netherlands, Australia, Italy, Greece, France, Germany, China, Vietnam, Brazil, Catalonia, South Korea, Canada, Russia, Hungary, Austria, Poland, Ukraine, Pakistan, and Lithuania. So that was just a subset of the countries and regions represented at the IJK.

At the official beginning of the event, they wanted to have one person from each country greet the people of Liberec in their own country's language. Since this is much easier than manning a booth, more countries were represented. I had been asked to say hello from the good old U. S. of A., so I thought I might as well. We went up to the stage by country in alphabetical order, and I was second-to-last, in front of only Vietnam. It gave me a lot of time to figure out what to say.

Hello! Greetings from the United States of America to the people of Liberec. Esperanto, the international language, brings us together.

My delivery wasn't as exciting as some of the other people's, so when I was done, I tried waving or something to get the crowd roaring. The reception seemed to be about average.

As I was milling around later, the President of TEJO told me that my greeting was beautifully done (he understood English, apparently). I didn't know what to say, but only because I hadn't quite heard what he had said, and by the time I had figured it out, it was too late to respond. Awkward.

After some traditional songs and dances on the stage, Kim worked some of his accordion magic. But the weather deteriorated, and eventually it started raining. I made a break for the nearest building, which was city hall. I stood in front of the door with some other people as we watched everyone else take cover in booths or on the stage. As the rain got heavier, some people started running around and having a good time. After the rain subsided, we headed back for dinner.

Food interlude: I haven't really mentioned what I ate at the IJK. Since we were apparently at a university, we were provided with cafeteria food. For breakfast there was always bread with meat and cheese. Some days the cheese was pre-processed and spreadable, other days it was the meat. Lunch and dinner often involved chicken and rice. There was usually weird juice or hot tea to drink. It wasn't the greatest, but I was pretty fine with it. I had paid for it, anyway.

Friday was the last whole day. In the morning, I went on an excursion with a few other people to the local zoo, which was the first in Czechoslovakia. The only problem was that the zoo was closed because of the previous day's storm. So the local guy of the group decided to show us around town. Liberec, it turns out, is a very old city. Probably the most interesting thing for me was seeing the oldest surviving houses, which were built in the Tudor style in 1681. It was nice to get out and do some walking.

In the afternoon, I went to the TEJO meeting feeling a little more confident about what was going on. They discussed membership applications from new national Esperanto youth organizations in Mexico and Benin; we also voted unanimously to explore the possibility of having the IJK in Africa as early as 2012. An Italian guy melodramatically read a draft of the resolution about freedom. There were also some other elections, and finally, a group photo.

That evening was International Evening, a sort of cross-cultural talent show that was also the closing ceremony. There were songs, poetry, dancing, sexy dancing, acting, and more. Several participants were local kids whose parents had found out about the IJK and, I don't know, show off their kids. One guy read some of his poems and Czech as well as one in Esperanto; I think he had only been learning the language for a few days -- he seemed nervous reading it -- but the poem was good.

There was some funny stuff. There was a skit about Italians giving other people lessons on how to act Italian: talking loudly with hand gestures and the like. Among the "students" were Matthieu (who had hosted Andy and me when we were in France), Bara (a friend I had met online), and Guillerme (my roommate there at the IJK): an all-star cast! Some people who had come from the Summer Esperanto Study played their SES song, which pretty accurately described the SES experience.

For me, one of the most exciting parts of the evening was the official inauguration of the new Pasporta Servo web site, which was christened with the sending of a message to none other than the USA's Darcy Ross. And, after introducing the newly elected TEJO officers and some closing words, that was it. I think they didn't have time to present the resolution.

After all that, it was late, but I decided to chill out a little while longer. As usual, after the evening's program, participants could go to the bar, the disco, the movie theater, or the "owl room." The idea of the latter is that if you just want a quiet night, you can go there to enjoy some tea by candlelight. I hadn't been there yet, so I checked it out with Andy and Diana, one of the other Americans. But I was tired, so not long after my tea, I called it a night.

Saturday morning was the leaving day. Chuck Smith, founder of the Esperanto Wikipedia, had seen the notice I posted about Andy and me needing a place to stay in Berlin, and he had told me that he would be willing to put us up since he lives there now. Andy had told me that he was tired of traveling and was taking a flight from Prague to London, where he would stay with our friend George until I got there and we had to fly home. So, I would be going through the last leg of the trip by myself.

So, on Saturday morning, I said my goodbyes to the people who were remaining. I didn't see Andy, but I did see that the keys to his room weren't hanging up behind the front desk, so he must have still been snoozin'. After a while, a cab came to take Chuck, his girlfriend Judith, someone else, and me to the train station. At the station, I saw several people from the IJK; Alex, who Andy and I had met on the way to SES, sat near us on our train.

We weren't going right to Berlin; Chuck was meeting a friend in Dresden and had booked a hotel room there for a night. So after a couple of hours, we arrived in Dresden, Germany, and met up with Chuck's friend. Alex also stopped in Dresden, so there were five of us: Chuck, Judith, Chuck's friend, Alex, and me: a motley crue of Esperantists.

First, we wanted to drop our bags off at the hotel. I think it was supposedly a four-star hotel, and it really was classy. Somewhat less classy was the unfortunate realization that Chuck had accidentally booked the hotel room for 8/25 (August 25) instead of 7/25 (July 25). He did get that sorted out, and we were able to put our bags there before coming back in the evening.

We walked to a Czech restaurant to have a late lunch. I had some ham wrapped in potatoes covered in gravy... with a salad on the side, thankyouverymuch. I ate most of it except for the salad. I also had half a liter of beer, which I drank most of. Everything was pretty good.

After that, we walked around town. Alex went to check in to a hostel, and we started exploring the city without him. The town square was beautiful. I had read that most of the city was destroyed by the Allies, but in the city center there were a lot of old buildings that seemed to have survived.

It started raining, so we ran into a nearby Canadian steakhouse called Ontario. I had never seen a Canadian restaurant before, but it seemed like an ordinary steakhouse with vaguely Canadian decor. Chuck asked the waitress if they had poutine, and she had never heard of it. We had just eaten lunch, so I wasn't hungry, but the others got drinks. I didn't really feel like drinking anything.

After that, we walked around a bit more and checked out some touristy shops near the river Elbe. Alex met up with us, and after parting ways with Chuck's friend, we went back to the hotel. We amused ourselves by reading about all the ridiculous services that the hotel had to offer, and then we decided to take them up on one of their less ridiculous services by watching Get Smart on pay-per-view. I needed to rest; I wasn't feeling very good.

After a while, I had that feeling of blood rushing to my head, so I went to the bathroom and lost my lunch. I hadn't thrown up in a really long time, and I hoped it would just be an isolated incident. It wasn't. Something I had eaten (or drunk) must have really rubbed me the wrong way. Still, I felt a little better each time.

Meanwhile, the movie had ended and Alex had gone to his hostel, so it was just us three in a hotel room for two. Not only did I throw up in a four-star hotel, but it was also the first stop on my entire trip where I used my sleeping bag. Chuck and I thought this was really funny.

I woke up Sunday morning not feeling very hungry. I had some nibbles and made myself look presentable; then we took a taxi to the train station. (The taxis in Germany are overwhelmingly Mercedes-Benzes. Very nice!) On the train, Chuck and I passed the time by watching Bender's Big Score on his laptop. Finally, we were at Berlin's Hauptbahnhof (Main Train Station), which is huge and modern. I was impressed.

It was a short bus trip and walk to Chuck and Judith's apartment. On the way, they stopped to show me something. There was a cobblestone line running diagonally across the street and the sidewalk. On the sidewalk, along the cobblestones, was a small plaque: the Berlin Wall had been here.

After relaxing in their apartment for a little while and having some food to eat, I felt up for a stroll around the neighborhood. They had told me that there were a lot of restaurants around them, and they weren't kidding. Cuban, Egyptian, and Singaporean were just a few of the restaurants I saw. Also nearby were a place where you could try 100 types of beer and another place where you could try 300 types of wine. They also took me to an anarchist art gallery (note to self: cool band name), which consisted mainly of some modern sculptures and a bar. It reminded me of Gainesville.

After another light meal, the subject of The Colbert Report came up. Chuck and Judith love the show, and I mentioned that I had missed the Iraq episodes because I was traveling and hadn't had time to watch them online. We found that the individual episodes had been taken down from the web site, and they didn't want to watch them clip after clip. Thus, the search began, and eventually they got some downloads going. I went to bed not long after that.

On Monday, I was feeling mostly better, so Chuck and Judith took me to the Singaporean restaurant nearby for lunch. The food was very good -- it tasted like Indian -- but I still didn't have much of an appetite. After the meal, Chuck showed me some of the city. We stopped at the Reichstag...

...and not far away was the Brandenburg Gate. It wasn't as imposing as I thought it would be, but it was still nice to look at.

Interestingly, I saw some people who seemed to be getting down from on top of the gate. They didn't look like they were supposed to be there.

The plaza in front of it is kind of touristy; you can have your passport stamped just like in the days of communism or have your picture taken with guys dressed as East German police. Awesome!

An old woman asked us if we spoke English. Chuck said "No" and kept walking. Before I knew what was going on, I said yes. Instead of telling me her spiel, she showed it to me in writing. I said "I'm sorry, I can't read," and walked away. Now that I think about it, she probably would have pickpocketed me if I had stopped to read the thing.

Several blocks away is Checkpoint Charlie, an important checkpoint from the days when Berlin was a divided city. There, you can find (a replica of) the famous "You Are Leaving the American Sector" sign. You can also have your picture taken with a guy who's dressed as an American soldier. Nearby, there's a snack bar called Snack Point Charlie. I thought it was interesting how Berlin seems to make light of its troubled past.

After stopping in a huge bookstore nearby, we went to the river to take a boat tour with some other Esperantists: an Israeli and three Ukrainians, all of whom I had met at the IJK. So the six of us were just chatting in Esperanto on the boat when Chuck decided to ask the people next to us what language they thought we were speaking. They had no idea. When he said it was Esperanto, they mentioned that they had just heard about it on TV!

One day while I was surfing the web in the lobby at the IJK, I saw a German TV crew doing interviews. Actually, "saw" is an understatement because they had their camera right next to my head. One of the organizers then asked for volunteers to sit in on an Esperanto class to be staged for the cameras. I had forgotten about it until Chuck showed me the video from German TV: the segment was in Esperanto with German subtitles, and the reporter even spoke some Esperanto before and after it. You can watch it here!

Anyway, we were all pleasantly surprised that we met people who had watched the segment. Going up and down the river was nice, especially because everything was explained in German and English. I saw some of the things that I had already seen by walking around, but it was nice to sit for an hour and have a drink. At one point, one of the Ukrainians saw a sign and misread the date on it as being in August instead of July. Chuck told her that that mistake had cost him money!

After the cruise, the six of us did some walking around. Chuck was the only real Berliner among us, so he led the way. He showed us a store with an odd specialty: all of its merchandise featured the red and green people from the East German pedestrian crossing lights. Apparently they've remained popular even though communism hasn't. I spotted the hatted proletarians at various points throughout the city.

After that, we stopped for ice cream. I didn't feel like having any, but I did feel like trying currywurst, so we got some of that next. Apparently it's a Berlin specialty. I forget the exact description, but it's like a sausage with Indian sauce on it. Chuck, who had some too, said it wasn't the best currywurst he had ever had, and I could see how it could be better, but I still liked it.

We made our way to a local cultural center, where an Esperanto club would be meeting. There were four other people there: three regulars and a guy whose interest had been piqued by a newspaper article about the IJK. Together, we watched a video of the opening of a small park named after L.L. Zamenhof, the initiator of Esperanto. The park was right in Berlin, and the video had been recorded the week before. There was some music, and some officials gave speeches to a small crowd.

After the video, Chuck discussed ideas for bringing together the rather disparate Esperanto clubs in Berlin. At least, I think so. My mind was elsewhere. I was thinking about how I would be going home soon and how happy I would be to be there. I was still enjoying my European vacation, but after two months, I was starting to miss home again. Y'understand.

The meeting went rather late. Chuck and I went home to watch the first Colbert Report episode from Iraq with Judith. Then, after Judith went to bed, Chuck and I stayed up way too late talking about all kinds of stuff. It was great.

Right after I woke up on Tuesday, I went with Chuck to the corner bakery to pick up some fresh croissants and bread. It was my last day in Berlin. I wished I could have stayed longer, but I felt I should move on and see Amsterdam. Chuck didn't resist very much because Amsterdam is his second-favorite city. But as long as I was with Chuck, there was still something I'd have to do.

Chuck likes games. He had asked if I had ever heard of a board game called Settlers of Catan. I had read about it in a recent issue of Wired magazine, and it was supposed to be, like, the greatest board game ever. So on Tuesday morning, Chuck and Judith invited over Tom, the Israeli Esperantist who had been with us the day before. That way, there would be four people for the game.

Learning the rules of a new game is always kind of tricky for me, and I tend to have no sense of strategy (just kidding, prospective future employers!!). Even though I did pretty badly in the game, it was still fun, and I think some of my friends would like it. It's a German-style board game, so it's different from American-style games. The differences are outside the scope of this blog post, but you can probably read about them on Wikipedia.

After a German lunch of potatoes, sausages, and cabbage (which I ate slowly), I got ready to leave. Chuck and Judith went with me to the bus stop, and away I went to the train station. They had made me feel at home and had taken very good care of me, but I had to keep moving. I was heading home.

About seven hours later, I had arrived in Amsterdam. It was late, and getting acquainted with the public transportation system was a confusing process, as it often has been. Once again, I was using the Pasporta Servo, so I followed the directions that my host had given me.

I got out of the metro station about ten minutes before midnight, making my way into my host's neighborhood. It was quiet, and not many people were around. I had almost gotten to his street when a couple of guys came up alongside me and started talking to me in English. I didn't listen to them; I told them I was late, that I was in a hurry, and that I didn't want to hear it.

I turned the corner onto my host's street and one of the guys stopped me. He started to put his hand into my pocket. He told me to give him 100 euros or he'd kill me. I shouted for help and received two swift hits to the side of my face. Then, I apparently found an opportunity to escape, because I did. I ran down the street to the next intersection, where I could catch my breath while being able to see all around me.

I saw people coming toward me from another direction, so I went back down the street to find my host's apartment. As I made my way there, the other guy was walking on the opposite side of the street, watching me. I found the building and buzzed my host, who let me in. I told him about what happened. I was shaking and on the verge of tears. He called the police.

Two officers came, and I told them about what happened -- fortunately, they spoke English. Once I gave descriptions of the perpetrators, they issued a bulletin. They learned why I was there and had some questions about Esperanto; one of the officers said he remembered reading about it in a book that had belonged to his grandfather. It was certainly an odd time for Esperanto Q&A, but I was grateful to them, so I answered their questions gladly.

The officers drove me and my host to the police station, where I filed a report (again, with an English-speaking official). Doing the police report took such a long time that I was calm by the end of it and my face didn't hurt anymore. The guy gave me a copy of the report (in Dutch) in a spiffy Amsterdam Police folder. My host and I were escorted back to the apartment in an unmarked car. After having a little food and drink, I went to sleep and had bad dreams.

I feel a little like it was my fault. I couldn't help that I was alone or wearing a huge backpack, but I did choose to get into the city at night, and maybe I could have stayed away from the two guys. Everyone -- the officers, the police report guy, the escort -- asked if it was my first time in the Netherlands. When I told them it was, they all wryly welcomed me. But I made it clear to my host that this wouldn't hurt my perception of the place. I know it's a civilized country, probably with a lower crime rate than the United States. I was just walking alone at night, and I looked like a tourist. It could have happened anywhere.

I am glad that it wasn't worse. I don't want to make light of the situation -- it really was traumatizing -- but I have to be glad that I didn't get badly hurt and nothing was stolen from me. I guess I knew what to do. If I had seen a weapon, I would have given them whatever they wanted, but I didn't, so I tried to scare them away. Fortunately, it worked. They must have just been some small-time crooks. I'm also glad that the police were helpful and that a lot of Dutch people are fluent in English.

Wednesday morning, right after I got out of bed, a couple of police officers stopped by and asked if I would ride around the neighborhood with some detectives that night so I could help find the perpetrators. I said it was okay, so they said they'd call that evening.

That day, my host had to check himself into the hospital for appendicitis, and his wife was going to work for the first time since the birth of their youngest child, so I was left alone in the apartment. I wanted to go out and see the city, so I got ready in no particular hurry. Finally, with the map that my host had given me, I headed out.

It was a beautiful afternoon for a walk; it mostly sunny with a cool breeze. I walked along the Amstel River and through what seemed to be a financial area. All the canals and bridges were beautiful to see.

I wasn't really hungry, but I felt like I should be, so I started looking for some place to eat. I turned the corner onto a street that had a lot of restaurants. In particular, there were a lot of Italian and Argentinean places, with some American, Chinese, and Indian restaurants as well. I decided to get some falafel. Andy had introduced falafel to me in Vienna, and I fell in love with the stuff.

I was looking for a little more, so I stopped at a place down the street that had Belgian-style fries. I knew this was something I had to try if I was in Amsterdam. I also knew that mayonnaise was a favorite topping, so I gave it a try. I had a seat in a nearby plaza and enjoyed it.

The plaza was called Dam. It was nice but kind of touristy.

The Anne Frank house was nearby, so I thought I'd have a look. There were a bunch of people in line to enter. I took some pictures of the building that they were going into. Later I found out that the actual house was the inconspicuous-looking building next door. Very clever.

I continued my walk through the city, stopping to rest in several lovely parks along the way. I was really amazed by the number of bicyclists going around. They didn't have to share the road; they had their own lanes everywhere. I think I had already known that, but it was still interesting to see for myself.

I made my way back to the apartment, and I wasn't feeling very good because I had eaten and walked a lot. I lay down for an hour and then just hung around, waiting for the police to call. They didn't, so I went to bed.

This morning, I got my stuff together and took the train to Brussels. From there, I took the Eurostar to London. The trip cost about as much as it did when we went from London to Paris. But it was pretty classy, and it cost about as much as a flight to London would. I wouldn't like to go on an international flight by myself.

Andy met me at the train station in London, and we went back to our friend George's dorm room in the West End (he's studying here for the summer). We're about to go to a show; his mom bought us tickets. Tomorrow: my triumphant return!

Into the world came a new feeling

Mon Jul 20, 2009 11:40 EST (UTC -5)

After sending my last post through the tubes, I went to see Gerda Disappeared, a recent video adaptation of Claude Piron's classic adventure that starts with simple words and gets more complex with each chapter. Apparently my new friend Katja had tipped off the organizers of the Summer Esperanto Study that it was my birthday, so they presented me with a T-shirt and a round of applause. I was glad to get the T-shirt for free because I almost bought it in the bookshop earlier that day. The video was unbearably long and stupendously cheesy, but it would probably be useful for beginners.

Katja's and my rooms were next to each other, and they had a common balcony. Katja had been saying throughout the day that she wanted to spend some time there. After the video, it was late, so we made our way upstairs. She borrowed a lighter from someone, but it wasn't for smoking. She had candles.

We took a couple of chairs out to the balcony. Katja set the candles on a sort of ashtray-like thing that looked like a table. She also brought out juice and cookies. Her roommate joined us for some food and drink but then went to bed.

It was late; it was dark and quiet. Stars twinkled above the darkened trees. The city lights of Modra flickered in the distance. Further away shone Bratislava. All was calm around us. Silence... then, magic. It was the best birthday present.

On Tuesday, we went on an excursion to a castle called Smolenice. Castles are usually old, but this one was mostly from the 20th century. We actually didn't get to see very much of it because it's apparently used as the headquarters of some scientific organization. The highlight was going up to the tower and seeing the town all around.

For the second part of the excursion, we went to a cave called Driny. We had to walk through the woods a bit to get there, but it was worth it. The cave was cool... literally!!! It looked a bit like every other cave I've been to, but that was all right because I enjoy chillin' with stalactites and stalagmites (or 'tites and 'mites if you want to sound hip). I didn't take too many pictures inside the cave because the tour guide said we would have to pay for the privilege. Lame.

On Wednesday, I didn't go to class in the morning because I wanted to sleep in. I needed to pay for upcoming excursions, but I didn't have much cash handy. After dinner, Katja and I took a walk into town, which took about 45 minutes. As we reached the town square, it was getting very dark, and I realized why. There was a huge storm coming.

After I got some money from an ATM, we bought some ice cream. Then it started to rain, so we took refuge in a bus shelter. Well, Katja didn't mind the rain, but I did. I was worried that we would be stranded. So

awweee jordan did u kiss in the rain??? No. Don't interrupt me.

So I decided to start looking for a bus that could whisk us away. Actually, Katja didn't want to get on the buses that passed by because she was enjoying the show. There was some lightning and a little rain. Then, as the clock tower chimed, all the lights went out everywhere. They came back on eventually, and the storm subsided. We decided to walk back.

There were street lights along much of the road but not all of it. At one point we were going uphill with no lights. I could hardly see. It felt like something out of a dream. Once we were almost there, it started raining again. I went to bed not long after that.

On Thursday, we went on an excursion to a castle called Devin. This one was on the outskirts of Bratislava, at the confluence of the Danube and some other river. (I don't have much online time, so I can't do fact checking, okay?) It actually was a genuinely old castle that was largely destroyed by Napoleon (the rascal) and not rebuilt.

After the castle, we checked out the old part of the city, which was situated on the blue Danube.

There were lots of narrow and/or pedestrian streets. The main landmark was a church.

It was nice to walk around, but it was also a little tiring, especially because we had to wait a while for our bus to come back.

That evening was International Evening, where participants could share details their respective cultures. It was essentially an informal talent show with mostly musical acts. Andy gave a piano accompaniment for some guy on a traditional song from somewhere, and then, to represent our dear United States, he did a jazz number on his own. The evening went on for quite a while, so Katja and I left early.

On Friday, there was an all-day excursion to Vienna. It was also Katja's last day (she had to take a train from Vienna), so we wanted to make it a good one.

The highlight of the morning was our trip to the Esperanto Museum, which I totally didn't know existed.

It showcased a small part of the Austrian National Library's collection on Esperanto and other constructed languages. Besides interactive exhibits about the history and structure of the language, there were old posters for Esperanto congresses, copies of the book that introduced Esperanto to the world, and some products with Esperanto names. (Ever heard of Movado watches? The name is Esperanto for "movement"—i.e., the Esperanto movement—and about half of their models still have Esperanto names.)

The museum, while tiny, doesn't treat Esperanto as a curiosity; it keeps Esperanto-speaking visitors in mind. The text accompanying the exhibits was in German, Esperanto, and English; brochures were available in Esperanto; and one of the guys who worked there spoke to us in Esperanto.

Since we couldn't all fit in the Esperanto Museum at once, half of the group went upstairs to the Globe Museum, which was larger and actually kind of interesting.

After a cafeteria-type lunch at some cafeteria-type restaurant, Katja and I split from the group (don't worry, it was okay) so we could do some stuff on our own. First, she needed to go to the train station to get her tickets out of town. Then we were pretty much free to wander around for a couple of hours. We went to the park at City Hall, where I had enjoyed Indian food and beer with Andy and his relative a week before. After that, we strolled back toward Schwedenplatz, where the bus would be waiting.

We arrived there early, so we had enough time to kiss on the banks of the Danube. Then we went to the bus so Katja could get her things and we could say goodbye with one last kiss. Just like that, my week-long dream was over. The ride back to Slovakia was quiet.

That evening, the Summer Esperanto Study came to an official end. We sat in the candlelit cafeteria and sang some songs. Afterward, there was some crazy fun and dancing, but I went to bed early again. I had had some long days.

On Saturday, the people who were left said their goodbyes, and the lucky few of us who were going to the 65th International Youth Congress of Esperanto (IJK) hopped into their cars or a chartered van. Six hours later, we were in the city of Liberec, which, while in the Czech Republic, is not near Prague, which you're going to tell me is a wonderful city.

At the IJK, Andy and I met up with Matthieu, who we stayed with while we were in Paris. Then we went to get dinner. During the meal, I realized that this was a high-profile Esperanto event and wondered which famous names might be there. Just then, a man came to our table and greeted us in English and then in Esperanto. I didn't recognize him, but he introduced himself as Chuck Smith. I was ecstatic; he's perhaps best known as the founder of the Esperanto Wikipedia. He said he had read my blog post about my visit to Croatia and was looking forward to getting to know us.

At the official opening of the IJK, a local choir sang some traditional songs, including some in Esperanto (for which they had to read the words).

There were also a lot of opening remarks by various people in charge of the event. The theme of this year's IJK is freedom (liberec' happens to be the Esperanto word for freedom), and the fact that we were in a formerly authoritarian country did not go unnoticed. (Ironically, at least to me, next year's IJK will be in Cuba.)

It was late, so I decided to get the key for our room. But it turned out that Andy and I weren't assigned to the same room even though we requested it. I was a bit peeved at first, but then I came around to the idea that maybe we should start seeing other people. So after spending some time in the 8th-floor bar drinking unbelievably cheap but good Czech beer with SES friends, I went to meet my roommate and hit the hay.

On Sunday, I woke up and decided that the morning program didn't look very interesting. Not having Internet access, I, um, wrote most of this. (How meta.) After lunch, Andy and I attended a course on how to teach Esperanto. Since we spent the last school year teaching Esperanto for our club, I thought it would be a good idea to learn how it should really be done. The lecture lasted three hours, but it's only the beginning. Using what we've learned, we have to design a lesson plan and teach a group of beginners.

After that, I attended a lecture in keeping with the theme of freedom; it was about OpenStreetMap, which I might just start using now.

In the evening, a local band played a show in a club-like place that's right nearby on the grounds of this university or wherever we are. I got a cheap beer and enjoyed an hour of loud rock 'n' roll (probably in Czech, but who could tell?). They did say "hello," "thank you," and "goodbye" in Esperanto.

After that, they finally got Internet access working in the lobby of our building, but my computer lost the connection and couldn't find it again, even after rebooting.

This morning, I attended lectures on the following subjects: farming and all the doom and gloom that go with that subject, the Esperanto movement in Africa, and a new news site in Esperanto. After lunch, I decided to chill and write, um, the rest of this.

Someone I met yesterday told me it was strange that Esperanto was "only" my second language (rather than, say, my third or fourth). I knew that Esperantists tend to be interested in learning languages (or, to put it humorously, Esperantists are the people who need Esperanto the least), but I had no idea how right she was. There's an event going on right now where people chat with each other, but they're not allowed to use Esperanto or their native languages. I can't participate unless I want to trot out a little stutterin' high school Spanish. ¡Qué va!

Tomorrow is the big excursion day. I'm going on the all-day excursion to Prague, which I've heard is a wonderful city from just about everyone I've ever met. Don't disappoint me, Prague!