Pictures of the Trip

Here are the pictures I took during our trip. Enjoy!

Back Home

Wow, so I'm actually back in NY, spending some last moments with my laptop, uploading and copying pictures.

It's great to be home to see Ken, the cats, the DVR (I cannot lie), my favorite foods and my tea assortment, my books and my own bed with my own pillow. My shower that actually closes all the way and a shower head that doesn't fall on me. It was pretty harsh though coming back. Zaid gave me a ride to 42nd Street from where I took the A train to go home.

I almost dropped my laptop when I heard the first car honking and got a whiff of air that smelled like urin when I walked down the subway stairs. On the train, as I was trying to take off my bag, a big guy took the seat I had aimed for, and another one was leaning against the pole so that I had a hard time holding on. Good old New York. On the other end of the car a father was yelling at his child, b.... this and f... that. Yes, I'm home again.

When I woke up this morning I took a mental walk out of the Meierhof towards the lake. I sat on the bench and looked over the lake, up the Untersberg and across the other mountains of the Alps. I walked over to breakfast. I wonder what the castle is like now, without us there, all quiet and more magical even.

I took out our e-mail list and transferred some of my blogs to the BMCC blog page. I looked over our welcome letter to the alumni of the program. I looked over other people's blogs. I chatted with Jamie and I watched some law & order. It's good to be back.

I think a big part of why the seminar was so amazing was that we were treated with so much respect. There was the honor system in the Bierstube. There was all the meals and coffee breaks we got, we were almost treated like celebrities. It was like celebrities cruises, just in Salzburg in a castle. It was perfect. We had so much freedom and at the same time so many responsibilities.

It was such a good environment. I'll miss that. I'll miss so much of it. It still seems so close, almost as if I can really just walk out the door and I'll be back there. That'll change soon, but that's OK. All the intellectual stuff will be with me forever.

Day 7-7.5 – Last Day and Day of Departure

I still feel like the sleep deprivation is really messing with my writing skills. I have a hard time thinking of how to begin my sentences.

It’s 11 AM on the morning of our departure. Let me start with yesterday.

I didn’t get up until 10:30 AM which was so great. I went to sleep late the night before so it didn’t make that much of a difference, but I did feel more rested. A bunch of people went on some outings during the morning, but I decided to sleep in. We met at 11:30 AM to rehearse our skit for the presentations. At 12:30 we went to lunch and presentations started at 1:30 PM. All of them were really great. Our skit went over better than I had expected it, and people really loved it and laughed a lot.

We broke for coffee, and people were taking pictures of their groups, pictures of their old friends, their new friends. We went back to the seminar room for the last time. David, Astrid and Jochen gave us some notes on how the groups had performed. A bunch of goodbye-speeches, and we were off to our rooms. I docked my camera quickly and we were off to a walk around the lake, finally!

It was really beautiful and I got a ton of great pictures. Back at the Schloss we changed for the reception. I got tipsy off of a glass of champagne. Next on the schedule was a classical concert by a local music student for about an hour. It was nice to sit and just relax and listen to music. Not many of us had stopped and taken a break since we’d gotten here.

Afterwards we had a banquet, which was pretty much what we’d been doing at dinner every night except that everyone was dressed up and we got table service. The rest of the night was spent in the Bierstube. A lot of us actually didn’t even go to sleep. One group left at 5 AM, another at 8 AM, and a bunch of us just didn’t go back to bed. I did sleep for about three hours, was back up at 8 AM this morning, and off to breakfast.

Ola, Marie, Phil and I sat with Reinhold, Norman, Michael and Norman’s wife talking about politics, voter turnout, and Bush. It was a nice last breakfast and I was off to my room with some breakfast for Sandra who was still sleeping. I took a quick shower and packed. I went to the lake to write some postcards and went back to the little library area to blog, and I think for now this is the last one I’ll actually post before I’m back home.

It’s been amazing, to say the least. I feel too exhausted and drained to actually express everything that I feel and that I’ve learned. It’s almost overwhelming. I guess the biggest lesson since we were such a mixed group is that it is possible to get along and be friends and respect each other, no matter the difference of opinion. I became friends with some amazing people this week. It’s like one of the speakers said, I’m not sure I remember exactly who, but if people get to really know you, they’ll look beyond your skin color and begin to see you as a person. Skin color can be replaced by any other distracting, irrelevant prejudice that stands in the way when people communicate.
I’m off to call Ken one last time, pack my bag and take some more pictures of the Schlossgarden. This isn’t the last blog! I’ll write more and reflect on experiences as they come up. Maybe with some distance from the actual event it’ll be even more interesting and more substantial than anything I wrote while I was here.

For now, I’m sad and happy to leave. I love the castle and the serenity that surrounds it. At the beginning of the week they said that the magic of the castle may get to us. It certainly has gotten to me.

Day 6 – Group Projects are Finalized

This is where we hang out for our coffee breaks, the back porch of the castle.

The day started with Reinhold Wagnleiter’s lecture on The U.S. of America and the World: Views from a Distance. I think the title does a good job in giving you an idea of what the lecture was about. We heard lots of numbers of how people respond to questions about America, as well as what some twelve-year-olds think about when they talk about America. “Dumb President” was one of them, and Reinhold said that that wasn’t even what they really said, it was much nicer (meaning dumb was nicer than the other words they used).

We spent the afternoon finalizing our research papers in the small groups and ours specifically writing our skit. After dinner we had our final lecture of the week: Emerging Diseases and Bio-Terrorism: Global Health and Economic Issues of Importance by Michael Thomas. Afterwards there was more rehearsing all over the castle and I finally settled in my room after talking to Ken on the phone around 2 AM. Chris was hanging out in our room and we continued to talk until about 3 AM. Sandra and I finally fell asleep.

Today is actually already day seven, but I’ll blog more about the entire day tomorrow when we’re back on the road again. For now, it’s almost noon and I slept in for the first time. I did wake up from the cleaning woman opening our door and after that I was in and out of sleep, but I do feel pretty rested. I still haven’t done the math of how many hours of sleep I actually got, combined, for the entire week. I’ll perhaps do that tomorrow on the plane. I do want to talk about my impressions while everything is still fresh but the reality is that I didn’t get ANY schoolwork done while here and that all the stress is starting up again as soon as we’re back. Still, hopefully I’ll be able to write a bunch on the plane or while we’re waiting around. I’m also planning on adding hyperlinks once I’m back on a real computer with a real mouse and not a touch pad.

I’m waiting for members of my group so we can rehearse. Sandra is still upstairs getting ready and Chris is sitting next to me on the couch and we’re recapping everything that has happened. It’s a pretty nice day today, although it’s a bit chilly, and I still want to walk around the lake and take more pictures. Chris and I just decided to do that tomorrow.

Well, I am going to go ahead and post this and hope that my group will start trickeling in soon. Ok, someone just got here.

Day 5 - German Students Visit

Blumen im Schlossgarden.

Our day started out with a talk by Nina Kolybashkina on Civil Society and Foreign Aid. Despite us all being sleep deprived and sick and achy, we loved the interactive talk and continued our discussions afterward. After lunch we broke off into small groups again and got lots of work done, since tonight some of it is actually due.

At 5 PM we met a bunch of Austrian students from near Universities. We all “adopted” a bunch of them and took them into our respective groups from our projects and talked about America and how it is perceived in the rest of the world, specifically from their point of view.

We did tell them to be completely honest, and despite knowing what Europe thinks of the U.S. and despite being a German living in the U.S., in a way it hurt and it was hard to listen to. I guess it is very different from knowing it subconsciously all the time and actually confronting it in another person. It was an amazing conversation though, and we talked about many other things such as a difference in legal systems (lack of a jury and no case law), the media portrayal of America and 9/11 and about the film industry.

At 7 PM we listened to Michael Daxner give a talk on Afghanistan. He has traveled extensively and just like Jan, the German intern at the seminar, predicted, he was quite amazing and knowledgable, just like this morning when we sat with him for breakfast and he explained along with Rheinhold how German grammar is actually much easier than English grammar and how there happen to be many more words in the English language than in German. It's been an honor and a treat to be around such intelligent and "vielseitige" people!

Pretty much everyone went out last night with the Germans while I stayed in, so I can't much talk about what they did. It's still early and I haven't even seen too many people. Lectures start in about 50 minutes.

It's about that time during our trip where we all realize that it's coming to an end. We really only have tomorrow left. It's a bit sad, but it's also exciting to realize how close we've come together in just a bunch of days. Most everyone has been so nice and real and stimulating to talk to. I must admit that I didn't think that Salzburg would do this to me. And it's not even over yet.

Day 4 - Dachau

Our bus to Dachau left at 9 AM this morning. I was scared all night last night about if I could handle it emotionally. I shared that sentiment with many others that I talked to. This whole week has been, yes, amazing and life changing, but also emotionally draining. I haven’t gotten much sleep, I haven’t had much alone time or play my guitar-therapy time, and it’s showing in me being on the verge of tears throughout certain events during the day.

So we were off to Dachau. We all got individual audio guides so we could be independent of tour guides and also explore individually and privately if we chose to do so. I walked around alone. I listened to a few recordings but soon abandoned the guide and the map. I found the cloister attached to the site. It reminded me of my Mom and how she always wanted to be a nun. How she was a saint in so many ways, how she had lived through World War II and had been lifted up as a five-year-old to hand Hitler, who was passing through her town on a wagon, some flowers.

I missed her, and I thought about her for a while. I grew up with the Holocaust reminders all around me. I watched the documentaries growing up, I’ve seen all the pictures, and besides feeling melancholy about my Mom, I really wasn’t quite moved by anything I saw. Well, I was moved, but not in a new groundbreaking way that made me cry or feel desperate.

I’ve also done so much research about genocide and read and learned about other instances of incredible cruelty, so in a weird way going to Dachau seemed like nothing much more than repeating old history to me.

We got back on the bus. I talked about other things, not Dachau. The girls next to me talked about other things, not Dachau. It was odd, to say the least. We got back in time for dinner. After dinner I played with Marlene and Ella, two little girls who were carefree and took my mind real far away for the time I spent with them.

Then, we had the fireside talk. It was unstructured, and people were invited to share comments or ask questions. The emotions began, and I realized that I began to be affected. I even felt like crying at one point. I meant to say something, but since I don’t have the guts to keep my hand up sometimes I gave up after a few failed attempts. I did start to notice that what I had anticipated to feel at the camp I began to feel now.

The talk ended with Phil reading from his notebook, reading a story about his family’s personal part in what we had learned about that day. There was lots of sniffing, and when the talk was officially finished, many people stayed in place crying, many people’s faces were buried in other people’s arms. I figured I’ll stay and give out a few hugs, but I felt too emotional, and I figured I’ll go to my room and write my thoughts down, just like Phil had done earlier today.

I did learn something after all.

Growing up in Germany I knew about the Holocaust. I even remember at one point thinking about how what if somehow the Holocaust had been forgotten or wiped from History through some freak event and one day information emerged about what happened, like papers of some sort. We would be so shocked. So shocked. I thought about that reaction verses the reaction we have on an every-day basis knowing our past, and growing up with this knowledge, thus never really learning it without knowing it beforehand. I think this was around the time when I started promising myself that I wouldn’t be immune to the daily news, that I wouldn’t sit by and eat my TV dinner while people were reported shot or killed on TV. I would act. I would do something about it. My activism was born.

Growing up in Germany, I never heard anyone say, “I am proud to be a German!” Certainly if anyone did, she’d be called a Nazi or looked upon in a suspicious way. Moving to the States at 17 and being exposed to the hardcore patriotism of rural North Dakota with the National Hymn and hand-on-the-heart standing ovations to the flag, I didn’t quite know where to place that feeling of confusion.

I realize now that I grew up with guilt about the Holocaust, guilt about being part of a country that has such a horrible history. I remember meeting the first Jewish person ever after moving to NYC in 1999, and feeling guilt and having to consciously get over that. I remember meeting black people and in a weird way feeling guilty to be white and wishing I was black. I had grown up knowing about my country’s history, but at the same time not really being patriotic. We never talked about how our country was great, we really rather talked about issues in a global context. This may sound cool, but at the same time I was less aware that the rest of the world wasn’t like Germany. I remember the first moment when I realized that the way I was living was actually the minority of how people lived. The large other part of the world’s population lived in much less convenient conditions than the ones I knew all my life and had taken for granted.

I got married to Ken who is American. 9/11 happened. I read 1984. I learned more about American patriotism and the "God Bless America" theme. After initially wanting to move to the states to be a cool hip American teenager I began to realize how shallow my ambitions were and that there wasn’t anything substantial behind them. I started to gain a picture of Germany that I hadn’t had before since I hadn’t been able to step back and see things from a distance. I began to see America very critically. For slavery, for all its acts of terrorism in the past, for its hypocrisy and inaction.

I have to word this carefully and I don’t want to offend anyone and please hear me out, this is all said with a deep love for humanity and to figure myself out. Being German and naturally being more critical of things especially my own government, it was more OK to me to be critical. Ken doesn’t quite like me bashing the U.S. sometimes, but I realize now more than ever that perhaps part of this criticism is a fear to repeat history, and a fear of other people not seeing what’s right before their eyes.

Not until I read 1984 did certain things in every day life make sense to me. They only made sense because I read the book. I could have never predicted that before. I was sick of the post 9/11 world of flags and God Bless America. Why not God Bless the World if you have to even use God, why not just Let’s do what we can ourselves to make this globe a better living environment for everyone. What do we have to be so proud of? Do we continually celebrate our accomplishments or do we spend more time and effort on the things we need to work on in order to be better, in order to stay positive and to look forward?

Patriotism still has a bad connotation to me. Some philosopher once said something like if there was no patriotism there would be no more war. That made me think. Maybe being proud of my country isn’t enough. Maybe I need to be proud of my world. And if my country does something to be ashamed of, I should be ashamed of it. But maybe that isn’t enough. Maybe if my world does something to be ashamed of, I should be ashamed of my world. I am, after all, a global citizen, I share responsibility. The people in Darfur are as much my fellow humans as my next door neighbors are, as my family in Germany is. Maybe if we all start feeling a little more like that there is a better chance of preventing another genocide.
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07/18/07: I am finally adding Phill's story (with his permission of course).

My mother was born in Mannheim, Germany. I’m not sure exactly how far that is, but it’s a lot closer to Dauchau than New York. That is where her mother and father were born. It is where their mothers and fathers were born too. I’m told my Great Grandfather, Philipp, worked for the German railroad as a train conductor. It was his job in the rail yard to make sure the right locomotives were on the right tracks attached to the right cars and headed in the right direction. It was a modest job that afforded him the ability to keep his family’s bellies full and a warm bed to sleep. With war on the horizon that was a luxury for most. He thought it quite odd the number of empty cattle cars being shifted about, but again war was coming and it was not his place to ask questions.

Time had passed and the cattle cars came back full, filled to the brim. They were not loaded like cattle and they were not packed in like sardines. They were not animals though they were people. Human beings treated with a level of disdain and disregard people reserve only for other people. Not even dogs are made to suffer like this. After all, the Nazis made sure to feed the dogs.

For a time, my Great Grandfather was able to resist acknowledging what was happening. All he saw were the hands. Only hands are not people. Only hands cannot look you in the eye. My Great Grandfather had his family to feed and now war was no longer just on the horizon.

In this time, my Great Grandfather’s son, my Grandfather, also named Philipp would take lunch to his father. Walking through the train yard, he too passed the hands. At fourteen years old and with a rebellious streak as long as the cars of hands, he had not yet learned not to ask too many questions. “Who are you? Why are you here?” were met with pleads and cries for help. “Move along or you will be shot,” shouted the guards any time he would linger too long. Soon, my Great Grandfather gave up eating lunch. He and his son agreed the hands needed it more. Each day would be thousands of more hands and each day my grandfather would bring a few of them his half loaf of bread and cup of water.

As my mother tells me this story she adds how ashamed my family was that this was all they could do. As more and more full cars came and more and more cars returned empty, my family’s shame grew as well. After all, what could half a loaf of bread and cup of water do for so many suffering thousands? I know what it did. It brought someone hope. Each day, one more person knew they would not die of starvation or thirst just yet. The rest of the world has not given up. Not all is lost, yet.

Soon thereafter the whispered questions reached my Great Grandfather’s bosses. Because of his skills as a conductor he was not expendable, but he was not above being punished. He was sent to the Russian front. He was lucky to return home alive after the end of the war.

At the same time, the German Army came to take my Grandfather to fight. He refused. “Fine,” they told him. They would take his little brother instead. Only then did he agree to go. He fought in the panzer division at the Battle of the Bulge. He was captured and held as a prisoner of war. His little brother, only 12, was drafted to fight. My mother stops telling the story for a moment, then he is not mentioned again.

This is the story of my family as it has been passed down to me. This is the story that passes through my head as I walk to Barrack X. I approach the entrance in a strange mixture of calmness and curiosity. Each step requires more and more effort and becomes more and more difficult. It was the showers. My panicked legs carry me outside before I could tell them to run. I’m thankful I don’t choke on the lump in my throat and I’m still able to breathe. I make my way to the back of the barrack and take heavy labored steps in the direction of the small path through the trees, desperate for any kind of shelter from everything.

Here I found the killing grounds, the blood trench and the tiny square of earth where thousands of undocumented people’s ashes were laid to rest. These might be the hands. This is where they most likely met their end. Could it be that one of the hands that took the half loaf of bread are here? Is there a chance these nameless hands sent to nameless graves were touched by my family generations ago? There is no way to know for sure. In the bus ride back I have started to come to peace with this.

I’m grateful for the opportunity to be here, to have seen what I have seen, and to share what I have shared. I struggled the entire time I was here with wanting to take something with me. A rock, stick, blade of grass, a picture, postcard or a souvenir… something. But then I realized I don’t need to. I have this story, my story. That’s not something I can pick up off the ground or buy in a shop. I have learned the truth about my family history that I did not have before today. That is something I will never loose like a rock or stick. It will not die like a blade of grass. It’s so much more personal than a souvenir. This is my story to tell. This is my story to pass on.

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Also, if you'd like to read my graduation speech which was inspired by the Salzburg Seminar, and particularly this day, read it here.

Day 3 - Meeting Champa and Party in the Bierstube

Ksenia hanging out by the lake.

Today is actually the morning of Day 3. It’s a little past 7 AM in the morning and I am about to leave for breakfast after which I still have some work to do. We are leaving today for Dachau at 8:30 AM, but I’ll report in detail about that tomorrow.

Yesterday, we listened to our first lecture by Champa Patel, Creating Inclusive Societies. Champa was especially charming and charismatic in a way that she drew everyone in and held our attention beyond the compelling issues we talked about, such as her grassroots work in her community with young kids that still have to develop aspirations that we take for granted. She’s the chair of ENIGMA youth project where she works with asylum seekers and youth offenders, etc.

After lunch we again divided into our small groups to work on our project. We hashed out last details and worked on our research. At 5 PM we went to watch the movie “What’s Cooking?” directed by the same woman who directed “Bend It Like Beckham.” It was really good, if you have netflix make sure to put it on your queue.

After dinner we had an hour’s worth of introduction to Dachau by Astrid and David. I think I speak for a large part of the group when I say that I’m a bit scared to go, a bit scared of what I’ll feel and how it will manifest itself.

Perhaps because of that or maybe because it was Champa’s last night here, a large chunk of the seminar attendees gathered at the Bierstube later that night. After I played table tennis with Jan, the German Intern, we started watching the crowd that had gathered to dance in the main room. It was quite a sight and we ended up laughing and squealing (at least I squealed) watching everyone having a blast and looking at some really fun pictures that were a result of the madness.

When I finally got back to our room at 2 AM I was too tired to draft my blog for the next morning which is why I’m writing this now. I’m off to breakfast and then a quick session with Kelly, my partner in our group for some revisions on our research, and then off to Dachau.

Oh, and there seems to be something going around: both Shiraz and Funda lost their voices, someone else was coming down with the flu, but all in all we are in good spirits and really making this the best time we can.

Day 2 - Lectures Really Start, Small Group Projects Are Assigned

Mozart's birth house in downtown Salzburg.

It seems impossible to have enough time and peace of mind to sit down to write a real, comprehensive blog about what’s been happening. We finally got out of our last session today at 10 PM after which I rushed to my room to wait for Ken’s phone call and subsequently went to the Bierstube, the basement “bar.”

I now have my carefully dosed medicine of one beer in me which is pretty helpful with my jet lag sleeping problems. I’m loopy and hungry, but I’ll try to at the very least give a rough account on what went on today.

We started at 9 AM with a lecture by Norman Yetman on The First Universal Nation: People in the 20th and 21st Century. He opened his lecture with Frost’s “Mending Wall” and went on to talk about immigration, race, identity, and many other things. After a short coffee break we went back for a plenary discussion and got introduced to our Small Group Project.

Each group (there are seven of them) gets assigned a country pair and is supposed to research on immigration, both historical and current. I was assigned to the USA-Mexico group along with seven others including the faculty advisor. Before lunch we also had our group picture taken with the Sound of Music background. After lunch we briefly met with our groups. Around 2:45 PM we went on a walking tour of Salzburg after which Roberto, Sandra and I went shopping. I bought way too many German books and ended up loosing both Roberto and Sandra and ended up taking a cab back to the Schloss.

Dinner! We ate and got a make-up of the Schloss Tour which had been rescheduled since we weren’t here yet yesterday when it was supposed to happen. The tour was decent and we went to our next lecture straight after that: Mapping Ethnocentrism. It was quite long and many folks I talked to (including myself) nearly nodded off during, although we all agreed that the content was fascinating, but I guess what David said about the jet lag hitting you really hard on the second day became true for most of us during the lecture.

Nevertheless, I couldn’t help but still go to the Bierstube. I played some table tennis and foseball with Nate.

There’s so much more. Great conversations. Moments of feeling a new connection within our group. Making new friends. Having really “big” conversations. Having life-changing realizations. I hope there will be detailed descriptions of those. For now, stay tuned, and I’ll see you all tomorrow!

Day 1 -- Traveling and Welcome

To your right you can see Shiraz at the airport in Salzburg, Austria, and other members of our group.

So here we are, it’s 23:40 according to our Austrian timed alarm clock in our room. Sandra and I are conveniently rooming together, taking away my worries of waking up and only being able to talk in German.

We all arrived early at the airport in New York, and Dean Craig came to see us off as she filmed each of us talking about how we felt embarking on our big trip. There was lots of waiting in lines until we finally got here.

It took us two more hours than planned on the runway and we finally took off on a Lufthansa plane to Frankfurt, Germany, where our connecting flight was supposed to be waiting for us. We ended up arriving 40 minutes late which isn’t bad considering that we took off two hours after we were supposed to, but we still missed our plane. We had already been rebooked on the next flight, and after a trip to McDonald’s and some of us doing our assigned reading homework, it was off to Salzburg.

Since we were on the plane with two other schools, Bronx Community College and Kingsborough Community College, making up a large chunk of the group of 50, the higher ups had waited for us and we didn’t really miss much. We still had time for dinner when we arrived at the castle and then were off to the welcome speech during which each one of us stood up to introduce ourselves, as well as all the chaperones and some of the faculty.

Now I’m sitting in our room, not quite thinking straight and pretty sleep deprived, but I wanted to put something on paper, well, on the computer more like. This really is only the logistics of our trip, but leaves out much of the emotion and the things we talked and laughed about. Let me catch up on that some other time. For now, I’m going to sleep.

Addition: It's already the next morning and I'm posting this in the library since our room has a very weak internet connection. Fulda is up with me sitting next to me and I'm waiting on Sandra to get breakfast with me. I couldn't fall asleep last night and was up until past 2 AM. I decided to go down to the Bierstube, a homy bar in the basement, well, not really a bar but a basement space where we can hang out and sign out our drinks on an honor system, pretty cool. I ended up getting a beer so I could calm down, I was so wired, I may have stayed up all night. Ok, more tonight and later, I haven't even checked my e-mail yet. Off to another amazing meal!

Flight Dates, Numbers, and Alumni

There seems to be a new link on the Salzburg Seminar website, either that or I didn't see it the last times I visited. Check out a description of the International Studies Program for Undergraduate Students. They offer lots of information, including what CUNY schools have been going to the seminar: BMCC, Bronx Community College, Hostos Community College, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Kingsborough Community College, LaGuardia Community College, and Queensborough Community College.

I also found out that initially around 70 people applied for the seminar at BMCC out of which 30 were chosen to interview. Then, over 2 and a half days of interviewing, the 15 finalists were picked. It's surprising to me that not more than 70 apply, but perhaps that has to do with the fact that it is only the third year that BMCC is going. Dean Craig went with a group of students in 2005 for the first time. In 2006, Vice President Haynes chaperoned the group, and this year Mr. Mars is going.

We had our last workshop on Friday, and we have one more next week when we will get our T-shirts, laptops, etc., and then it's off to Austria! We also received our flight dates: on April 1, Sunday, we will be leaving JFK on Lufthansa, flight 405, at 9:10 PM. We'll have to be at the airport two hours early, since it's an international flight. We connect to a flight on Austrian Airlines (264) in Frankfurt, Germany (not long enough to meet up with my friends) and finally arrive in Salzburg at 1:40 PM. We leave Austria on Monday, April 9, at 2:25 PM on Austrian Airlines, flight number 265. We connect to Lufthansa in Frankfurt on flight number 404 to arrive at JFK at 5 PM.

At our last workshop Dean Craig invited some former attendees to speak to us about their experience. Sabine, whom I recognized from my first semester Philosophy class, said that she had been at a crossroads before attending the seminar. She encouraged us to talk to the professors and make connections. Many of them said that it was an emotional, eye-opening time. BMCC stood out by how they presented themselves. Some alumni who weren't able to attend sent e-mails: Graham said that his experience was like a painting: you attempt to look at small beautiful parts but realize that in its entirety can it only be fully appreciated. Like a fish who lives in a bucket is transferred into the ocean. Ilva added that in order to change the world today one must understand how international organizations work. Just to see the magnitude of the change Salzburg had on her, she told us how she was now studying International Studies with a focus on Green Architecture. Everyone agreed on one thing: be open-minded.

Other ideas were to spend time in the beautiful and resourceful library, to take notes, they will be helpful later on. Talk to everyone, other students, professors, facilitators. And if you want to be extra prepared, read up on current events and research as much as you can with a focus on globalization.

In the end of the meeting we practiced German for a little while. I recommended Language Guide, as well as a great book titled "German in 10 Minutes a Day."

Itinerary and Other Details

This is our group! Including Mr. Mars, our chaperone, on the very left. Very exciting.

I finally studied the booklet in more detail. It's a filled week, no doubt. Each morning we are scheduled for a talk of some sort from 9 until 10 AM. We then have coffee/tea (I love that) at 10, after which there is another discussion. Lunch is at 12:30 every day, and after another group activity we have coffee/tea again at 3:30 PM. More program until dinner at 6:30, and then we have the last event of the day which includes a fireside talk on Wednesday, sounds cozy.

On Wednesday, April 5, we will be visiting Dachau, a concentration camp. Ironically, this is something I always voted for when we were deciding where to go on our field trips back in Germany, but I was overruled each time. Now that I live across the ocean I get the chance to actually finally go there. My Mom lived through WWII, her father, my grandfather, died in a field in Russia. She used to tell me how Americans would give the children chewing gum, but then it wasn't well known in Germany and people thought that they were trying to poison the children, so they never ate it but threw it out instead.

Our Dachau visit will be an interesting starting point of conversation considering all the other genocides that have happened but have not received similar reactions. I can't wait. I can sense that this trip will be truly life-changing.

To give you a better idea of what this entire program is actually about, let me quote from the syllabus:

"In an age of new international challenges and tensions, the need for Americans to understand international affairs, to recognize cultural values other than their own, and to view world events from a variety of perspectives, has becomes increasingly
critical. The purpose of this program is to provide an intensive seven-day international experience for participants to explore pressing issues of global
concern and to view such issues from a perspective both literally and figuratively outside the borders of the United States.

Participants should leave with knowledge and skills to acquire a better understanding of the international political order, the global economy, and worldwide social developments. Because the Salzburg Seminar is located in the heart of Europe, the session will pay special attention to the political, economic and cultural history of the trans-Atlantic relationship, its future dimensions, and the impact such changes may have on the rest of the world. At the same time, mindful of increasing global interconnectedness, the session will consider issues of particular concern to regions of the developing world. In this way, students will be exposed to the relationship between the historical legacy of the latter part of the 20th century, global responsibility, humanitarian intervention, and social justice.

It is intended that this program will make students more aware of global issues and of what it means to be a 'good citizen', more discerning on the assessment of information pertaining to world affairs, and more understanding of America's place in the worlds as well as of non-Americans' perception of the U.S."

This was a bit lengthy but I it sums it all up so well it deserves the space. This is what this seminar will be all about.

We will do all this through pedagogical modules which include plenary lectures, small group work, and some cultural exchange which will include meeting local students, film screenings, and a classical concert.

There's a (still subject to change) list of faculty for the seminar, and finally lecture topics, also still subject to change: Mapping Ethnocentrism, The First Universal Nation: The American People in the 20th and 21st Century, The Third Sector: Creating Inclusive Societies, Emerging Diseases and Bio-Terrorism: Global Health and Economic Issues of Importance, The Legacy of the Holocaust in Europe: An Introduction to the Visit to the Former Concentration Camp in Dachau, Civil Society and Foreign Aid: The Eastern European Experience, The U.S. of America and the World: Views From a Distance, and finally The Role of the UN Today.

For our pre-reading we have Europe vs. America on our list as well as Inescapable Side by Side: An Interview with David Held, a text called Mass Migrations on Europe (published by the European Science Foundation), the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and Beyond Hegemony.

Our First Workshop

To your right you see Schloss Leopoldskron. I can almost smell the fresh Austrian air.

Finally, this past Friday our group met at school for our first workshop. Now I feel like there is too much information to blog about! We were immersed in filling out various agreement forms, our personal biographies for the seminar, etc.

We got thick booklets of information to seep through: our syllabus, reading assignments, tips for traveling abroad, weather forecasts, and more.

In the very beginning we played switch: we would talk to a new person and find out as much as we could about them until Dean Craig would say "switch." Turns out that two pairs of people have identical birth dates in our group! Whoever found out first would win an umbrella. I think Kimberly won. It was fun, and I was delighted to find out that our group is super diverse: a lot of us have similar stories of working another job, getting married, simply having a nontraditional path. Everyone is from all over the place, Morocco, Turkey, Israel, Haiti, Germany, Philippines, and the list goes on and on.

Dean Craig had saved quotes that we said when she told us that we had been picked for the trip. She'd show them to us and we'd have to guess if it was us. It was pretty neat, most everyone guessed right and many gave a recap of how they'd felt.

Dean Craig also told us that last year some students ended up having visa problems and couldn't go. Yikes. I hope that our group won't run into that. You'd think that they'd cut us some slack and provide a smoother way of getting visas for everyone without having to run back and forth and gathering insane amounts of paperwork.

We've developed a google group that we communicate through and are sharing information about insurance and carry-on restrictions and such. We'll be interlinking our blogs here until the school finds a way to give us a website that we can all post to.

Our next workshop is in two weeks. Stay tuned for more updates!

Saturday Afternoon Thoughts

Gotta know your basics: The Austrian flag.

I'd like to keep filling this blog and keeping you all up to date, but truth is, there isn't much to tell. Our next meeting is still a week away, and our departure is only one month away! I've finally found out who will accompany us: Mr. Mars from the Office for Student Activities. It's his first year going. He's helped out in the past, has taken groups to the airport and such, but this is his first actual time going on the trip. He beamed when he told me. I think this will be a great first time for many of us.

Not only will it be an amazing learning experience, but it will be a break away from everything, away from school deadlines and academic stress, and a trip where we can expect to see and learn new things every day, in a country that is sure to surprise us every day.

I'm still unclear as to what exactly will be going on, but I'm expecting we'll be taking intensive workshops of some sort each day, concerning global issues and discussing our opinions and the current state of affairs.

We'll definitely be doing some sightseeing as well. We'll probably see Mozart's birth house, Salzburg's most famous son. We'll visit the Salzburger Dom, the city's cathedral opened in 1628 and is Salzburg's top-attraction. Then there's St. Peter's Monastery with the cemetery, founded in 696. That is old. Really old. If we're visiting Mozart's birth house we'll surely be passing through the Getreidegasse, Salzburg's fancy shopping mile. OK, then there's a lot more castles and churches and parks, too many to list, or maybe too many to list without boring you.

I'll be very excited to hear my native language again and I'll have to make sure to buy some classics in German that I've been trying to get my hands on. This is kind of silly though, considering that the German collection of the public library on 53rd Street probably has a larger selection of German books than any bookstore I'll be able to go to in Salzburg.

I wonder what the weather will be like. Today it's 46 degrees in Salzburg, 7 more than we have here in the city. Knowing that Germany, which is so close, tends to have moderate winters and summers, I expect we'll have decent weather.

Just for fun and to wrap this up, here's some fun trivia you might want to study up on (which I found here): Salzburg's capital is Vienna, the language spoken is German. It borders eight other European countries: Italy, Switzerland, the Principality of Liechtenstein, Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Slovenia. It sits between two mountains: Kapuzinerberg (which loosely translates to hooded mountain) and Mönchsberg (monk's mountain). It's probably what you imagine in to be: a cute town with rich history, plenty of beautiful old buildings with a breathtaking "Altstadt" (literally translated old city, meaning downtown), tiny Harry-Potter-movie-like alleyways and heaps of castles and cathedrals that are older than anything we've ever seen in the infant U.S.

Like Germany, Austria is divided into nine federal provinces. It's a member of the EU, and it's most prevalent religion is Catholic. Despite the fact that the language is German, the culture is mixed and represents many ethnicities and more languages are spoken. Kind of like New York. Neat.

In case you didn't already know, Austria uses the Euro. The current exchange rate is $1=1.32 Euros. When you go out to eat, make sure to tip 10%, keep your elbows off the table, and be ON TIME! I love this one, it's been a pet peeve of mine since moving to the states. My poor husband has suffered many scoldings for standing me up even if only for a few minutes. I've gotten much more laid back about it. Practice how to say "Guten Tag" (goo-done dog) to say hello and "Guten Appetit" before a meal (goo-done uppe-teet). If you're trying to read the Schloss Leopoldskron website try google's translator here.

The Sound of Music

Turns out that the castle where we will be staying at (Schloss Leopoldskron) was used as the backdrop to the 1965 musical "The Sound of Music." When the filming started in 1964 the castle had already been owned by the Salzburg Seminar for a couple of years. Back then, it wasn't open to the public.

Turns out that the forum I posted on the BMCC's MySpace page didn't get much feedback. No one seems to know what the Salzburg Seminar is. Hm. I'll have to make sure to write an article for the school paper.

We finally got a mass e-mail from Mr. Mars of OSA informing us about preperations and the first date for one of our workshops: March 2. I scanned over the e-mails in the to field and didn't recognize any. I checked on MySpace to see if anyone had a profile, and now I've met some of my fellow travellers online at least. They seem pretty excited, too.

Our responsibilities for now include checking to see if we need an entry permit. Turns out that if your passport is from a country that is part of the Schengen Agreement, no visa is needed (that includes Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden).

Oh yeah, the most important update: we actually know when we are leaving now: April 1-9. Nothing much else is new as of now, I'm just waiting for our first orientation. I make a packing list if I get too anxious and check international carry-on restrictions. I was hoping not to check my luggage again after I lost it once traveling wir air-tran, but I suspect I'll have to this time since I won't be able to bring any shampoo or toothpaste with me unless I'm willing to check my potentially dangerous liquids.

Off to the laundromat. I wonder what the weather will be like in Salzburg in April. I can't wait.

Salzburg, Here We Come!

I grew up in Germany and was lucky to go on some really amazing trips abroad: In 7th grade we went to England by ferry and bus and gave the sleeping boys hickeys on the bus and put balls of Kleenex in their mouths. I remember getting into the car of my host family. I was nervous, the first time in my life I was alone and dependent on the little English I knew. In 8th grade our school had just made friends with a school in Brisbane, Australia, and we headed out for a month of which we spent two weeks camping in the outback, petting kangaroos, koalas and boa constrictors. In 9th grade we flew to the U.S. to stay with host families in Emmaus, Pennsylvania. Before, we made a stop in New York where an electrician of our hotel who found us roaming the halls late at night took us up on the roof and I fell in love with the city that I now call my home.

Point being, these are some of my fondest memories. I grew up, I went to musical theatre school, I spent my years as a starving artist/occasional actress, met my wonderful husband Ken and got married, worked a desk job at a law firm, got what I thought was my dream job working for PETA, until they laid me off, and I realized how much I missed school. That's how I ended up at BMCC. I hadn't the faintest idea of how much I would love it there. I think the first time I heard about the trip to Salzburg was when Professor Clock mentioned it during our summer history class while we were freezing and huddled up due to an overactive AC. I wasn't going to leave Ken for long, and for some odd reason I didn't jump on the idea. The following semester during one of my weekly visits to Professor Mansouri's office she asked me directly if I planned on applying. I started thinking about it, talked to Ken who was encouraging (it was only for a week), and applied. I got so into my application that I blew up one of my favorite pictures that I took of patina in the park and made a fancy folder. I had to force myself not to obsess, and wait patiently.

Finally, during the winter break I got a phone call for the interview. Yessss. I wasn't really on break, taking daily 2 1/2 hour intensives of Short Story with Professor Messitt whom I had wanted so badly to take Modern European Novel with in the fall, but the class had been cancelled. I came in early and interviewed with the committee of eight, including Dean Craig whom I had met after attending her scholarship workshop. I had liked her so much that I made an appointment to tell her how much I enjoyed her poetry that she regularly wrote for her students. Some other familiar faces were in the room, and the questioning started. It lasted about 20 minutes. Everyone around the table had a turn with a prepared question. Some of them really threw me, one was prepared: I was asked to talk about Globalization. It was challenging, and not easy, and I knew that I hadn't answered perfectly, but I had given my best, I felt. I was psyched up more than before now, and made Ken not let me talk about the S word, so I wouldn't go nutty and then be disappointed.

Last night I checked my e-mail and it asked to get in touch with the scholarship office. I stopped by today and Dean Craig directed me into her office with the words: "We couldn't take everybody, there was just so many of you that were so qualified." My stomach sunk and I thought that perhaps it wasn't meant to be. I'll just stay in over the break and write my honors paper on Iran's nuclear situation and read the Fountainhead and Hegemony or Survival. "Oh, so I didn't get it," I said, and I got a smile in response and the words: "No, you did!" followed by hugs and some bouncing on my part. It was beautiful. Mike from the paper was there, too, and I got to share some of my initial excitement, which is always the best kind. Dean Craig asked whom I would tell first. "My husband," I responded, and, well, he sleeps sort of late since he works in Theatre, he works late nights mostly, and I called him a little later, but he was still within the first five people that found out.

Now, I really want to know who else is going, students and faculty, and when the first workshop is, and when we fly out, how long we stay, what the itinerary is, where we are staying, but none of those details have been revealed and I find myself once again trying not to think about it too much. I posted a forum on BMCC's MySpace page, so hopefully I'll find at least one person to get excited with.

With this post I begin my documented journey on our trip to Austria. I plan to give you more background on the seminar itself and the country as well, and of course, fill you in an all the details along the way. For now I have to read Act 3 of As You Like It.