Boren Convocation

As most of you probably know, I was awarded a Boren Scholarship to study in Russia next spring and summer! As part of the award, all 115 award winners were flown into DC from around the country for our convocation event this week. Last night we all went out to dinner then for a night tour of the national mall, today was packed full of briefings and meet-and-greets, and tomorrow we all get to meet the congressmen from our states and districts! I wasn't really sure what there was to 'convocate' us on for two days seeing how different all of our programs are, but it's actually been pretty great so far.
Today we had panels mostly relating to our service requirements, program regulations and expectations, funding logistics, safety and security, and what it's like to work for the federal government.
There are 13 Boren scholars going to Russia and it was awesome to make friends who will be in cities from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok! Road trip anyone? =p   I really enjoyed talking about Russian history, culture, film, food, travel experiences, and language frustrations with other people who share such similar goals and experiences and will probably be my competition for jobs when I graduate! Haha
It was also very interesting to hear other scholars' stories of why and how they choose their languages and countries. Even if I don't have a passion for, say, Nepal, it's inspiring to hear my peers just gush about how important the Nepalese watershed is for all of South and Central Asia.
I think a lot of us have similar experiences being tsked at or disapproved of for having passions that not everyone understands and for attempting to specialize in a climate of so many "jack of all trades, master of none"s. It's really so freeing and such a relief to be reassured that I'm not the only one whose family thinks she's crazy and who has taken the leap of faith into the murky waters of turning a passion into a career.

To sum this up I thought I could just share a few inspiring things I was told today by people involved with Boren as alumni (and, thus, national security-related government employees for at least a year), board members, or outside advisors. Here are some of my favorite words of wisdom!
Advice for studying abroad:
- "Spend more time in bars" (don't focus so much on school work that you miss out on authentic life in your host country)
- Don't go to "Spain" (don't have a typical American study abroad experience- go for more than 6 weeks, actually immerse yourself in language and culture)
- Get away from other ex-pats
- Get involved with community service/internships while abroad
- Read the newspaper everyday
- Embrace the awkward moments and use them as learning experiences
- Talk to strangers- retirees in parks, children etc.
- Get lost! Travel, explore, take advantage of your situation

Advice for fear of specializing:
- Don't worry, Russia  is cool
- You're young, plenty of time to broaden your expertise or study other languages
- "Do what you're interested in and a career will develop from that", let yourself flourish
- There are already way too many generalists
- There is ample room to stay in and grow within the field of Russia/Eurasia in the US Gov

Advice for a foreign service-type career:
- Do Boren (check!)
- Be a regional specialist
- Interning and networking is KEY
- Develop your area of expertise, but don't become a one-trick pony
- Get a security clearance as soon as possible
- Be flexible and open-minded when looking for your first job

Well. I hope tomorrow is as interesting as today was! Spicy-bo for reading ;)

*Highlight: The FBI-produced film "Game of Pawns" that tells the true story of an American student in Shanghai, Glenn Duffie Shriver, who was recruited by the Chinese government to infiltrate a U.S. intelligence agency.* 

**Other Highlight: Peace Corps Safety and Security Officer briefing us on safety issues abroad who was incredibly hilarious and coined the term "spicy-bo" (mispronunciation of the Russian word for 'thank you')**

Finishing What I Started- Helsinki

I was going to combine this post with Russia but I am getting impatient, have a lot of work to do tonight, and really just want to get this up, so here is a brief summary of my experience in Helsinki, Finland!

There's really not much I can say about Helsinki, partly because I was only there for just over a day and partly because there's just not much TO Helsinki.
Now, if you have been to Helsinki and found it enrapturing, enchanting, intriguing, or even just alive- I would love to hear about your experience because we clearly saw a different city.
I found Helsinki to be...

• Clean
• Empty
• Uniform
• COLD
• Plain
• Boring
• Rigid
• Pretty 
• Nice
• Passive

That being said, I wouldn't say it's a bad place. My experience was just...well, that ^
The three bright spots of the city were:

 The beautiful Orthodox Cathedral                         










                                                                                           The Lutheran Helsinki Cathedral

And this little Nepalese restaurant around the corner from EuroHostel where we stayed that was the best I've ever had!(Nepalese is, to put it simply, kind of a blend between Indian and Chinese cuisines)

Helsinki wasn't a bad place, I just didn't see any vibrancy there. No life, no excitement. There weren't many people out (granted it was really cold), and the few that were walking were not very friendly. Everyone and everything seemed to be that kind of bland, cold, conformist Stepford kind of pretty- but it was pretty))
I think I'm really glad I went to Helsinki, though, because it gave me a city that I don't particularly like. In my opinion a tourist will say every place was "great" or "beautiful", but a real traveler is someone with enough experience and learned discernment to be able to say- "You know what? It just wasn't my kind of city, I didn't like it." and I think at this milestone I am slowly moving up the ladder to true traveler (or, as I like to say, tourista) status!
We hoped on a small bus to St. Petersburg around 6:00 at night and rolled on out of Finland...St. Petersburg is yet to come!

Finishing What I Started- Budapest

So to anyone who followed my blog during my spring trip, maybe you'll like this! Because I am sure that you were all severely disappointed when I abruptly stopped detailing my journey due to my extreme laziness and also lack of easily accessible Internet.

So here we go, a quick run down of the end of my trip so I can say that I finished what I started))

After Vienna, Roman and I spent three days in Budapest, one in Helsinki, and four days in St. Petersburg, Russia. Since my memories aren't as crisp as they were 10 months ago, I'll use some pictures from my Facebook album to help illustrate my story!

Budapest:
This city is very important to Roman because he has a family history there and spent many vacations there as a child. Also, Hungary has a really interesting story of independence and freedom fighting, uses a language that is one of the most isolated in the world, and (although I didn't really see much of the natural landscape) the architecture and environment of the capital is beautiful! 


The picture on the left is a pretty good representation of the typical city street- broad, tree lined, half of the road is pretty much taken up by trolley-bus tracks and you can see all the cables crossing over head. It seems like a pretty public-transportation-driven city, which is great! Especially when you can sneak onto the trolley buses without paying for a ticket...because Hungarian is too difficult to figure out and we were too confused! Poor tourists ;)
The picture on the right is...me! And, more importantly, some buildings pretty indicative of Hungarian architecture, kind of a blend of art-noveau, neo-baroque...yeah, if you want to know more about Budapest's architecture than I do--> Architecture of Budapest

..............we swam at Szechenyi





We went to the park....................

 

 

And, maybe most importantly, we had great days sight-seeing and a magical night on Szechenyi Bridge!

 

Overall, Budapest was great! I really enjoyed my time there, but I'll definitely call it a vacation (although a super cheap, grungy, loosely structured, very brief vacation). I didn't really get a feel for the local culture or atmosphere, I don't think I talked to a single person whom I am sure was Hungarian outside of the tourism/service industry, and I certainly didn't talk to them about what it means or what it's like to be Hungarian or live in Budapest. The "hotel" had a nice breakfast spread which was perhaps indicative of Hungarian dining customs, but other than that it pretty much could have been any large, pleasant, central European city. Next time I will definitely shoot for more of a cultural excursion, get into the underbelly of the city, find out why being Hungarian is different and interesting! I can't wait for the opportunity to really form the character of "Budapest" in my mind rather than just a fond,vague, positive memory.

And then we went to Finland...which I'll discuss along with Rossiya in the next post)

Pre-Russia Musings

At this moment it is9:25am in St. Petersburg, -16 degrees Celsius (3 Fahrenheit), and the sun has yet to rise. I am lying in bed in Virginia, where the weather is +8 (46F), 4 and a half days before my trip to that dark and frozen land and I am absolutely terrified! Or at least very nervous about my winter break trip. Even though this will be my second trip to Russia, it is going to be very different than last time when I spent 3.5 days attempting to sightsee in freezing rain and a borrowed jacket over my light sweater which clearly indicated that Russia and I have very different ideas of "spring". This trip will be two weeks with my boyfriend and his family in St. Petersburg= two weeks of below freezing temperatures and barely seven hours of sunlight daily, two weeks of putting my Russian language skills to the ultimate test, two weeks of total immersion, two weeks of getting to know and attempting to impress strangers with whom I don't even have language in common...but I'm also excited! The romance of a Russian winter complete with horse drawn sleighs, a trip to the Mariinsky for the opera, women swathed in furs gliding gracefully across icy streets in stilettos while I totter behind them in my snow boots, snow flakes the size of nickels balancing on my eyelids. It really has the potential to be a magical trip if I do it right, and I feel like I kind of have something to prove to everyone who scoffs at and disapproves of my choice of how to spend my winter vacation. So here I go, off once again into the unknown! I hope I like the food)))

Note: I'm just now posting this, but it was written just after midnight on the 23rd

Wien

Wien. Not wine, mom, see the difference? Wien (pronounced "veen") is the German spelling of the lovely capital of Austria, Vienna!
I spent 2 nights and 1.5-ish days. Highlights of the trip?

• Finally getting to see Roman!
• He met me at the train station in Vienna after traveling 155.79 miles from Prague on my best train journey so far (see my last post about getting here).
•  It was such a wonderful moment to see him again for the first time since July...and I was so incredibly nervous!
• We took the metro from the train station and walked to the hostel from there. I had kind of wanted to go out and do a little exploration of the 10pm culture of this vibrant European capital! But my better judgement decided against that as we saw our hostel (as hostels tend to be) was more on the outskirts of the city and it was SO cold. Less miserable weather than Prague since at least it wasn't raining, but the wind was biting and the promise of a warm building was too inviting to turn down.
• At first it was strange to be able to have a conversation with Roman without straining to hear through the static of Skype or watching his face blink in and out every few seconds, but soon it became so normal and just like our virtual conversations, we have so much in common- with just enough disagreements to keep in interesting- and we never run out of things to talk about)))

•  Stephansdom
• One of the most beautiful cathedrals of the trip, and definitely comparable to some of the ones in Prague. We went at night and colored lights were shining on the outside of the building and gave it a sort of eerie feel.
• On the inside, everything seemed to be on fire in a beautiful way. It was so dark, lit mostly by the hundreds of candles that visitors could light in memory or prayer. 
• Roman and I had a really wonderful conversation about Protestantism, Catholicism, and Orthodoxy. We discussed the differences, the similarities, the overarching theme that connections not just those but all religions- love. There is a distinct difference between God and religion...visiting such an array of places of worship really helps you understand that.

• Kaiserschmarrn

• I love this food. Best dessert ever. I have been waiting to try this for almost two years since I first read about the pancake-like pastries filled with raisins, topped with powdered sugar, and apparently served with a bowl of fresh delicious jam!

There just wasn't enough time in Vienna...next time, I will go when it's warmer)) And I'm definitely planning on there being a next time. 

"Promiňte, kde je..."

*I sincerely apologize for not blogging for so long. Honestly, when you're traveling you don't want to be stuck behind a computer and as the type of writer that I am, I struggle with just making a short update...BUT here I am, back in the USA and finally readjusted enough to relive the glorious days I spent in Europe last month. So here we go

The Train
because it's all about transportation.

• Very interesting. First of all, I used my Eurail pass for the trip and it was terribly nerve-racking because despite the assurance of the Internet before I bought the pass, few conductors seemed to recognize the pass at first glance. Thankfully, they mostly just took my word that it was legit and moved on. 
• Finding the train in the city center was an adventure within itself. In probably one of the scariest (see Strasbourg for the other) moments of my trip, I got absolutely hopelessly lost in a Prague suburb while attempting to get to the city center to catch my train. In my state of terror I forgot that I had a certain amount of data on my phone I could have used to look up a map or something, so I was flying blind. Basically: Radek met me in the city center the day before and took me to his family's apartment in a suburb about an hour's train ride to the bus station, 15 minutes on a bus to his neighborhood, then a 5 minute walk to his apartment complex, and then 4 flights of stairs (this is important). While we journeyed he clearly pointed out the route I would need to take the following morning to get back to the city center...I was foolish enough to think that remembering "the bus stop is kind of within sight of the little Chinese fruit market" would be enough. The next day I left the apartment later than I wanted to, which basically meant I had one chance to catch the bus to the train station in the next 10 minutes or have to wait another hour. I descended the flights of stairs...how many was it again, 2? Okay, all the doors look the same. I'll try this one...oh, hello someone's front hallway! Voices? Run. It must have been 3 flights. I go down one more, this door looks a little different, I'll try here...hello, sinister heavy machinery storage closet. The pipes are rattling louder than a jet? Run. Maybe it was 4...maybe I'll never escape this building...FINALLY I got outside. Ha. Then, I had to find the bus station. I won't recount every mistaken step I took, but basically by wandering in circles for about 20 minutes and pointing at words in my phrasebook to the few bundled up annoyed old ladies I passed on the street. I eventually found a bus, the wrong bus, but the driver seemed to understand my need to get to the city center so I just got on his bus and waited for instructions. While I clutched my phrasebook for dear life the old man in the seat across from me stared. I wasn't sure if he was appalled by my intrusion into his peaceful Friday morning, amused by my total failure in regards to direction and speech, contemplating dusting off his high school English and breaching the language barrier (I wish I had tried, but I was paralyzed by fear), or sizing me up to see how much of a fight I would put up...In any occasion, the bus driver managed to motion to me after 30 or so minutes that this was my stop. I was the only one to get off there, and I saw nothing in sight that resembled a train station. My first instinct was to crumple on the broken pavement and sob, but thankfully I mustered enough courage to pick a direction and start walking. As soon as I passed the little wall of trees on my right I saw the golden temple (read: broken windows and graffiti covered tunnel) of the train station!! I vaguely recognized the name of the station and I knew it wasn't the station I was looking for but I didn't care as long as it took me somewhere. But life had another trick up its sleeve...every sign at the station was in Czech, and most were abbreviations that my phrasebook did not include. I was able to understand that there were two trains- one going towards Prague and one heading out into the country. It did not mention, however, which train came to which of the two tracks. I waited nervously at the deserted station for almost half an hour before a tired looking woman approached and she became my savior in a mix of broken English and Czech. I eventually realized that the bus had brought me one station past the one I was supposed to go to, but I am eternally grateful to that bus driver and the lady at the train station because without them I would probably still be wandering those freezing streets. My backpack was heavy. It was cold. And windy. And raining. And every muscle in my body was tensed in terror for a fight or flight response...but in hindsight, I think it was one of the experiences I'm most grateful for from my trip. It wasn't planned, there was no easy solution, I was absolutely forced to use my Czech, and I succeeded. Now I am more confident, more knowledgeable, and more humble with my assertions that "Yes, of course I remember the way"...because I can almost guarantee that I don't))
• I wandered around Prague some more and saw the beautiful Strahov Monastery for less than $5! This day contained an immense amount of walking, running, rain-dodging, freaking out, and finally the wonderful train ride that took me to Vienna!
• The reason the ride was so wonderful is because after about 30 minutes I was sure I was in the right place, headed in the right direction, and the compartment was great. I shared a small room with 5 other passengers, a few who were replaced once or twice as the train stopped in towns in Cz and Austria. (I saw Brno through the window!) One other man took the train all the way to Vienna and he and I struck up a conversation. He lives in Vienna and was attending a work conference on public policy in Dresden, Germany (the origin of the train). We talked about my travels and he gave me some advice on Vienna. When he saw me trying to restore my appearance to normal human status, he deduced that I was going to meet my boyfriend and seemed genuinely interested in my well being and got more and more excited with me as we counted down the minutes to the final station. My first experience with the Viennese people was excellent! Something I've learned through traveling is the ability to and opportunities for making "friendships" with adults. When I'm traveling I am mature and confident and able to engage in meaningful and complex conversations with other people, regardless of age or status. I'm not a child, not a student, not an adult because these categories exist only in a vague, indefinite, introductory sense. On a long train ride in a small compartment the divides between people that define my life at home and school so clearly- age, occupation, clothes, money, accent, car- all disappear. I can be exactly who I want to be without falling into the traps of conformity or propriety because there is no "standard" to mold yourself into when you're not even sure what language to say "excuse me" in when brushing passed people in the narrow aisles. That is what makes train travel- and travel in general such a rewarding experience.

Czeching In to Praha

          I left Germany Wednesday night and took a veryy long overnight train- City Night Line 495!- to the Golden City of Prague. There was a small ordeal with getting my train reservation since I had a Eurail pass...basically Sarah and her dad saved my butt from not having a train to Prague at all. I am extremely grateful to them for their help, and eventually I found myself safely on CNL 495. I had the second cheapest sleeping option with six bunks in one little cabin. And it was extremely little, there was barely enough room for one person to stand in the space between the bunks! See what it basically looked like here- but that picture is actually nicer than my train was. You couldn't sit up in bed either, so the whole time you're forced to either lay on your back, lay on your stomach, lay on your side, dangle one leg into the space between bunks, or pace in the aisle outside the cabin. I choose mostly options 2 and 5 since I really wanted to see the countryside pass by (since I'd never seen Eastern Germany) and a giant Chinese man and his mail order bride had pretty much laid claim to option 4. Well I made it through the hot, sweaty, suffocating, clausterphobic night without too much discomfort and arrived in Prague just before 11 am. I was thankfully able to leave my backpack at my host's work place in the city so I could roam burden free. And roam I did! I walked almost the entire city, my first day I did the East bank of the Vltava which includes the two quarters Staré Město (old town) and Nové Město (new town). Staré Město is where a lot of touristy things are such as the Powder Tower, one end of Karlovy Most (Charles Bridge), the Astronomical Clock and all the other delights of Old Town Sqaure, and Josefov the old Jewish district. Nové Město has a cool mall...haha it's not very touristy but Wenceslas Square and the long, broad boulevard that leads up to it is nice. (I have pictures of everything that will be on Facebook!) 

The next day I did the West bank with Mala Strana (the lesser quarter) and Hradčany (loosely "Castle town"). I saw a lot of great sites here like Prague Castle, Strahov Monastery, "embassy row", St Nicholas Cathedral, and Karlovy Most. 

I think I did much too much to talk about it all but it was a good time for sure and exhausting. 

I walked so much. Honestly, I walked everywhere and traversed more ground than I thought possible but it was a wonderful experience just exploring on my own! 

Downsides:

• There was a constant cold wind and on and off raining...I saw the sun once
• I have zero pictures of myself in Prague since I was alone and had no one to take pictures of me!
• It was admitedly a little lonely, especially while eating

Highlights:

• KGB Museum! 
• For the price of approximately $10 I got a personal tour of the one room "museum" from the die-hard Soviet owner. The highlight of the museum was undoubtedly the collection of KGB photos in the Czech Republic taped to a sheet hanging on the wall. $10 well spent and I definitely recomend it for the benefit of meeting the owner alone.What a character!  ;)
• Prague Castle
• I didn't get around to it the last time I was in Prague, but I think despite the rain and the arduous trek up the MOUNTAIN it sits atop that it was worth it. The castle itself is stunning and really quite imposing and the area around it is facsinating, filled with "palaces" that were once the residences of courtisans and aristocrats. 
• Speaking Czech
• I really love the language and it was great to have the opportunity again to practice with native speakers
• Mala Strana
• I think my favorite quarter in Prague, I got to really explore it on this trip. It actually reminds me a little of San Francisco. Kind of edgy, lots of university-type hang out spots, and the river is visible from lots of hilltops.

So basically, Prague was wonderful! I think for a solo trip I had just the right amount of time there, and as always the food was delicious- I actually tried sauerkraut and didn't absolutely hate it.