Pipe dreaming, overdosing on nostalgia, and piles of research

 Oh, my poor blog!

How I have neglected thee!

Seriously, though... this semester has been crazy!

I am currently taking a break from re-re-re-re-re-editing my Undergrad Research Grant proposal for my DIS! Which I am so stoked about!

The possibilities seem endless this semester!

It is amazing to note this difference in myself. And I find it amusing that a single course can make one feel depressed and hateful towards their academic institution for so long...

But now that German is over, I am ready to conquer the world and my major! HUZZAH!

And I have started that by developing a DIS project with one of my fav Professors.

This project should have me back in the Balkans by the summer and if that happens, then I will be doing a second DIS in either Prague or Greece.

But I have a strange realization... my passport stamps will all look the same :/ Blessings, for sure, but for a nomadic spirit, it pains me a little.

I mean, I just went there last summer and experienced all that is wonderful and amazing about the region - even the summer heat was a marvel for it is unlike that here in Florida. I had such high hopes for going to Istanbul for Study Abroad this summer, but those were popped due to family circumstances and the realization that it sort of doesn't fit and that DIS is more important to my future as a Grad student than more undergrad courses. I mean, when I had this realization, I began pipe dreaming and overdosing on nostalgia by drinking Višnjevača and listening to Croatian folk music from a concert I attended in Dubrovnik. Which made me more depressed…

But, then God reminded me of something. My professor at the time offered a DIS the following summer for the same course… and the Grad School Workshop that I had attended the night before where my other fav professor talked about grad school and great ways to boost your chances including the importance of DIS! DUH!!! 2 birds, 1 stone.

I could travel again, but more importantly, I could do a DIS project on something I want to learn more about anyway! Perfect!

Then, a few days later, I find out that I have to do at least 6 hrs of DIS and/or internships for my international affairs minor… uhmmm, can you say fate?

But, the fact that I may be going back to a country that I just experienced seems sort of………… defeating.

I have a list of places that I HAVE to go to before I die, which could be any day that God chooses to call me home.

I WILL – I am all about proactive language – go to Egypt, Istanbul, Rome, Paris, Normandy, basically all of France, Dublin – which has a nice airport… it was so tempting to just miss my flight back to the US and go exploring - , Scotland, Kenya, Russia, Vietnam, Peru, India, Iceland- and by that I mean Reykjavik, because that’s kind of all there is - , and the list is never ending! I just have to go!

I feel like I will feel I have cheated myself of an amazing life if I don’t do all these things! I have been dreaming about travelling the world since I was a little girl! Literally, the only fantasies I have ever had, has been of me travelling the world. In the 3^rd grade we watched this video about the leaning tower Piza and how it was closed down because of the instability of the infrastructure. I vividly remember praying to God to not let it fall over until I had visited it! Ridiculous for a 3^rd grader you say? Not for one born with a spirit and a nomadic heart. I can even remember of being jealous and slightly mad at my dad for going to Switzerland with his Swiss friend and not taking me! Granted, I was like… well, really little. I never dreamed of getting married or having kids or a house… only of travel. I obsessively watch Samantha Brown’s shows and am ridiculously jealous of her travel life! Her, and Andrew Zimmern and Anthony Bourdain. I mean, come on! Look at their experiences! Totally jealous and envious!

I just have to get out there and learn and see things and experience things and get lost – check - and have adventures and just live. I just have to. It is the greatest desire of my heart! And part of me is afraid that I am wasting my chance to go somewhere new by going to a place that I have already been. But, I know that it will open up opportunities to go to Prague or Greece for other education opportunities. So, new experiences wait through the same experience.

I wish that I could somehow these passions to my parents… especially when I feel like they don’t get it or don’t understand what I’m talking about, or why it means SO much to me to just go somewhere! My feet can only tread the same Earth for so long…

P.S. I have those posts from the rest of my vacay with my mom in NE Georgia. They’ll be awesome! Full of fun and craftiness; and new posts are in the works as far as some new DIY projects are concerned –I’ve got some great ones!

Check out this blog for SOME great DIY projects… I don’t approve of all of them, but that’s just me :)

We humble travellers of yore...

My mom and I are just arrived in White County, GA today! My favorite places to visit are in the Appalachian and Smokey Mountains!

 Crazy to head up anywhere in this three day block, but it’s what you do.

We stopped for Dunkin’ Donuts before hitting the interstate, as usual.

And this is what I wore:

White American Eagle sweater, Lolita T from Out of Print tees, skinny jeans, and black flats.

8 hours of fashionable, baby! Sort of…

I guess that I should have stopped at some point to take pictures, lol. I haven’t been very good about all of that.

Anyway, we get here and my grandparent’s dogs go bananas! They just get so excited about everything! Pics to come soon of my two girls!

My grandma Cook made us homemade Brunswick stew with her home grown carrots and potatoes! MMMMMMM!!!!

And this is what I see:

Mt Yonah :)

And this was my in-flight entertainment:

"Quite frankly my dear, I don't give a damn."

No joke.

Proof:

This was the weirdest part of our trip to the Cyclorama. Clark Gable as a dead UNION soldier… The story goes that before the cast of Gone With the Wind began filming, they were taken to the Atlanta Cyclorama to see a little bit of the history. Clark Gable made a joke about how he would the painting more beautiful and asked to be put into it. The thing is, he didn’t say it HAD to be in the painting portion of the Cyclorama. In the 1920’s a 30 ft deep diorama was added to create a 3D effect, and well… they added Clark Gable to the diorama as a union soldier, lol. Awesome!

The cyclorama – as an art form is centuries old and is kin to those lighted carousels that made light shapes dance around your dark room. It is the precursor to movies. A cyclorama is a 360° painting that immerses the patron in a special time or event. It encompasses you and you are swallowed by the silence and the overwhelming knowledge that your eyes cannot move fast enough to absorb all of the brush strokes.

My daddy went to the Atlanta Cyclorama - which is in Grant Park next to the Atlanta Zoo – when he was a little boy in the 70’s. It was much different when he went. It was so cool to have him tell me all of the differences between the before and the after. The Atlanta Cyclorama is an American Civil War Cyclorama and was completed in 1886. It depicts the battle of Atlanta… aka part of Sherman’s march to Atlanta. It is SOOO massive and there is such a nifty museum there about the Civil War that I highly recommend it. You’ve got to be sure to make it in time for a guided tour of the Cyclorama because you’ll miss the cool Jeopardy facts otherwise.

Here are some pictures that I wasn’t supposed to take, but of course did…

Emergency Exit... no lie!

Sherman bow-tie. My Grandpa Hutch grew up seeing this still around trees in the rural area of GA where he grew up.

After this, we went to Tanger Outlets at exit 221 off of I-85 SB. Maybe I-75SB… I can’t remember. It was pretty fun.

The Importance of Mezuzah

This is the Shema prayer; the one that is contained inside the Mezuzah

Mezuzah is Jewish for “door post” but it means the little boxes that Jews place on the door posts of their homes that contains the prayer.

In the Torah, God commands the Jewish people to hang mezuzot on their doorposts. Two Torah portions, Shema and Vehaya, include the verse: "And you shall inscribe these words upon the doorposts of your house and upon your gates."

The Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4-9) begins with "Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One." The Shema reminds us that God is always present in our lives, and that we should keep God's words constantly in our minds and in our hearts. The Shema tells us that one way to do this is by writing them on the doorposts of our house. Vehaya (Deuteronomy 11:13-21) assures us of God's compensation if we fulfill his commandments (mitzvot).

 


 

This first day -  which I actually managed to take a pic of – dark wash skinny jeans (American Eagle Outfitters), grey long sleeve shirt(old Old Navy), and a beautiful ¾ sleeve cropped hunter green chunky cable knit sweater that I scored for 50% off from LOFT by Ann Taylor, and cognac boots.

I threw Dubrovnik some love with the Kuzek tote bag that I purchased while I was there over the Summer.

On Monday we visited the Breman Jewish Heritage and Holocaust Museum

Here are some photos of what I found most touching:

This is a quote from Rev Martin Niemmoeller

A map of the camps. FYI you can't even see them all from this photo. I had to back up WAY too far to get the whole thing.

These two were reunited/ met in a Displaced Persons Camp after WWII and camp liberation

This is a poem written by a survivor who lives in Atlanta. It was written during the war. A moving and portral of fear.

 I never take pictures of persons being murdered for personal reasons. Aside from that, I do not feel that it is all that proper to the memory of the dead. For it to be exhibited in a museum for people to understand the gravity of the actions that were carried out in WWII, I find it almost necessary. I cry every time that I get to that part of WWII Holocaust museums. I cannot control myself. It is so heart wrenching for me to see the smiles on the Einsatzgrueppen’s faces while they malicious and unreasonably murder and massacre innocent persons. The fear that races in the victims’ eyes; this I cannot stand.

In the Holocaust class that I took over this past semester with Dr. Gellately, he said to us something that I agree with: “War liberates a people like liberty cannot.” In war time, certain new “freedoms” and powers are granted to different persons. In what peace-time country would the annihilation of the Jewish population be allowed? None. Not really. Granted there are things that have happened in peace-time countries, Pogroms, but nothing like the systematic murder of the Jews. It is truly shocking the things that happen.

 If you find yourself incapable of reading a whole book about it, try Maus,the comic book by Art Spiegelman. I highly recommend it. It’s a true story about his father. His father and his mother survived the Holocaust.

I also highly recommend the museum. Not only does one gain the enlightenment of the Holocaust, one is also able to see inside Jewish life, especially that of the Atlanta Jewish population.

For dinner we went to Truva on 60 International Andrew BLVD. If ever you are in Atlanta, go! It was SOOOOO good and very similar to some of the foods that I ate while I was in Bosnia i Herzegovina and Croatia. Being a Turkish restaurant, they have Turkish nationals. Our waiter was AWESOME!!! He was born in Bosnia and then grew up from the age of five onward in Turkey. I assume it was because of the Balkan war of the 90’s, but I didn’t ask. He spoke so highly of Istanbul! I am so excited about visiting there someday soon!

Here’s what I ate:

chicken breast stuffed with rice and pistachios and dates with a Tarragon sauce

Our waiter informed me that it was a palace dish in Turkey and was reserved for the Princess. I loved hearing the story behind the DELICIOUS meal that I had. My daddy and I shared this weird cheese dessert that is a very traditional dessert of Turkey. It was unbelievable! I can’t wait to go back and try something else from their menu! Yummy!!!

AND it did NOT escape that Kim Jong Il died yesterday. P.S. pray for N. Korea.
On our way back from Dinner we found some interesting art along the way...

Why someone would make stickers of this, I don't know. But, it gave us a good laugh. 

To Atlanta, We march!

My daddy and I are total American Civil War buffs! And just plain history fanatics.

I was so excited about this because… well… it’s travel. And I haven’t been on vacay with my dad in just about forever! Even if I had to share it with his new girlfriend.

This is what I packed: basics. It was only two days, but I still managed to pack quite a bit of clothes.

I wore on the road: black jeggings, nautical ¾ length sleeve shirt, chambray button down belted at the waist, cognac knee high boots.

I can’t wait to get out and explore my second fav Georgia city.

When we got into town I was shocked and saddened to see so vividly the homeless population. It was so cold outside and the group that we saw was so young. I could barely stand it! I have never felt so thankful for my life. I have never been confronted with this mass population of people before. I was so un nerved and slightly afraid of them. Apparently Atlanta has quite the homeless population. I come from a small town and even in Tallahassee, there is not a homeless population like that.

Not exactly the way that I wanted to start off the trip.

But with the Breman Jewish Heritage and Holocaust museum and the Atlanta Cyclorama coming up, I couldn’t help but get over it and move on.

 I’ve got such an amazing life <3 God bless your travels my little nomads!

Advice from Split, Croatia

When I was travelling by myself in Croatia after my study-abroad 2 week program ended, I went to Split for the last part of my solo week.

PICTURES AT THE END. READ FOR THE REWARD.

I was eating dinner at Hotel Peristil’s own restaurant and it was dead. Where the hungry people were, I do not know! A young – and attractive waitor – was just sitting and I was just sitting and we weren’t talking. That’s weird for people over there. He started talking to me. We must have talked for at least 3 hours. He shared with me SO much about the culture in those hours than all the studying in the world could have done. It was amazing. I discovered how much alike people are. How everyone in the world worries about how their government is changing and so on. How they work, how the economic crisis isn’t just in the US – dimwitted, I know.

He told me all about how the businesses have declined and how foreigners are all worried about how much they are spending, when only a few short years ago, that would have been the farthest thing from their minds.

Yeah, the world is a lot crappier than it used to be.

Aside from the fact that he thought it was weird that I was travelling alone, he told something about myself:

I am time-obsessed.

He reminded me that time is yours. And it’s up to you how you spend it. But, he said, Americans have lost this amazing ability to use time. Time uses us.

It was then that I noticed that the whole time that I was talking to him, I was checking my clock! WTF!? I thought… I am on vacation and I have nowhere to be, and no time constraints, I don’t have to be up early. What am I doing? I immediately put my phone far away from me so that I couldn’t see the time. And we continued to talk.

The best thing he told me the whole night was this:

Whatever you have to do, will be waiting for you when you get to it.

I so wish that this were true… they have work ethic, but they take it easy. They don’t bust themselves up by the time that they are 45 trying to do everything on Monday so they can do everything on Tuesday.

This isn’t a race… it is life.

So just slow the freak down when you can. Enjoy yourself. Don’t make yourself haggard and wretched inside just so you can have everything checked off.

Take it slow.

Take long lunches with friends. Walk slowly on your way back from class and take deep breaths and smile as you look up to the sky and try not to feel so sad doing it.

Yeah, I know, we all have schedules, but screw it every once in a while. Like he said, “It’ll be waiting for you.”

I mean, I spent a whole day walking around Zagreb’s up-town basically lost. I was looking for ONE thing in particular and essentially ended up losing a whole day… but it’s ok. I met some AMAZING people.

Look what you can miss if you don’t take time.

A little window on the streets of Zagreb. I would have missed it if I hadn't looked up. Take time to look up.

After a day of being lost, you can feel like a master of the streets once you figure it out and finally find what you've been looking for (Zagreb).

A real Croatian Baseball game... I think that's what it was. I watched it for a bit then moved on the the Archaelogical museum. Take your time getting to where you're going. Enjoy the unique things that you find along the way. (Split)

Sometimes getting lost reveals something that you would have never seen (canopy in Split)

Take the time to look and admire (Market in Split)

Zagreb. Just take a moment to look back to make sure you didn't miss anything.

Georgia on my mind...

Oh, Georgia! How I long to be in the safety of your memories. How I long to be in the security of care-free days. Georgia call to me, call for me, take me in your arms! <3

Why can't December 14th arrive... TOMORROW?!?!?! I am so desperate to see the bare trees with black limbs scraping the blue-gray sky. I want to hear nothing but the wind sweeping through the mountains. The sharp chill of the mountain air is what my lungs long to be filled with.

There is something about the Appalachian mountains that just drives my spirit into a frenzy... maybe it's fact that my family has been vacationing in the White/Habersham/Lumpkin county region of Northeast Georgia for as long as I can remember, maybe it's the family heritage that I have in Georgia... or maybe it's just the magic of the mountains. How could it be otherwise? I always feel so right with the world when I am in Georgia. Every now and again my insecurities sweep through my mind and dampen my spirits, but then I go into the woods and all is again right in my heart.

It is only November 5th and already my mind is thinking on what I need to pack, what outfits will suit both my Ocala travels and my Georgia travels, and what I need to buy... i.e. new tights and jeans since I am still stuck in the size 16 of haunting horror. I just can't wait to be out this damned city named Tallahassee... my feelings towards this city is another blog post entirely...

Keep traveling - in mind, soul, and body.

Dear World, Could you please stop being so breathtaking?

This is Dubrovnik from the Airport Shuttle bus window. This was my first view of the city that I was about to fall in love with. Even through the haze of a dirty window, it's a breathtaking city.  It was Sunday there; Monday here.
I tear just looking at this gorgeous city and thinking that I was there, that I have people that I left behind there... it's gut wrenching right now becuase I am unsure of when I will return to see them. There is Facebook, but once someone is friended, do we ever move past the acccept button? Still, it is lovely to know that I can contact them.

The conference enhanced the whole of the experience. I would say that it was like an intense tour from a classroom. I was able to absorb all of the amazing facts about the war and the current political situation and then apply that to the cityscape.

The worst thing about the city were the mass amounts of cruise boat tourists that were there to only buy from the "Made in China" shops on the Stradun, eat gilatto, speak only English, go swimming, and then leave at the end of the day. They were incapable of experiencing what I experienced. I had the true Dubrovnik at my disposal, they had the Stradun. I got lost in the streets, discovered new places, and purchased only "Made in Dubrovnik, Croatia."

If ever you make it to Dubrovnik, please do me one little favor: Stay longer than a day. Explore the surrounding regions!!! It's a place that you will cry for when your plane takes off to fly you home.

The Balkans

The word Balkan comes from two Turkish words: Bal meaning honey and kan meaning blood.
Having just returned three days ago from what can only be described as a whirlwind tour of awesomeness, my eyes will never see the world in the same way. The things that I saw, the emotions that swarmed my heart and soul left an impression upon my psyche that shall never dissipate.
I only wish that I had had the ability to feel more. I cannot tell you how many times I wanted to cry.
Over the next two weeks I will take pieces from my journal and post them here on my blog in order to share the experiences that have changed my life forever. Pictures and related stories will also be posted. I hope my love for east European cultures - namely Slavic cultures - will one day express themselves in my life's work... to be a Dr. Metcalf would be fulfilling I think.