Going Continental!: May 2005 Archives

Dramed of stained glass last night. :-) And sgraffit, or modern petroglyphs. Saw a frieze I really wanted to take a picture of but hadn´t bought a camera yet: it was in the gymnasium of an Ecole Primaire that was on the art nouveau tour. It said, "Refuge."

"Instead of copying the classical forms of the past, designers turned to nature for inspiration, using the shapes of flowers, plants and insects." This summarizes the architectural movement, which specialized in combining wood, stone, metal and glass.

I just began being interested in art the past few years. Never knew enough about it to understand what could be so compelling to folk. Am definitely into symbolic uses - particularly of the ancient kind such as Dan Brown details in The Da Vinci Code (yes, it nurtured my soul) - and also of the protest kind, such as Néstor García Canclini describes with academic and theoretical zeal.

Today, art nuoveau.

Hilaire showed me the town last night - several parts of it anyway, including the African Quarter.

I´ve been having one heck of a time via word-of-mouth, so finally resorted to a Google Search. This article boasts several; I´m going to have to keep my eyes peeled for these info kiosks (haven´t noticed them as of yet) - supposedly five have been installed and are running, with more to come by the end of June. Right after I depart. :-/ The other option is Brussels International Airport.

I am feeling blessed. Got my badge to the European Parliament here in Brussels; already had one interview today and have another one lined up for tomorrow. And there is an AIIC meeting tomorrow evening where I will meet a bunch of interpreters and hopefully arrange more interviews. Phase two is off to a great start. :-)

I´m still toasted, though, from the past weeks´ marathon of travel, plunge into "the field", paper-writing and all. Mentally and emotionally I am feeling IT. Lucky I have Dan Brown and The DaVinci Code to grant some respite. Here is a tidbit on The Rose Line, which is "believed to emanate a certain spiritual frequency - one that sustains feminine energies and the search for unbiased truth."

So said a pal of Simona´s when he learned I missed my own birthday party! It was such an accident, and so embarrassing...who knows if I will really be forgiven? At least I hope everyone had a good time (!), and I did get some writing accomplished instead (although I am quite sure I would have preferred dancing!

This is an enraptured city. :-) I have only walked around a bit so far for exercise in the midst of the marathon of final paper writing and grading of the past few days; but I am looking forward to enjoying it and hopefully meeting loads of interpreters here. :-)

One thing about being in Europe ~ folks have been amazingly kind. I was warned by a few different people that the French, in particular, would give bad directions and otherwise be unhelpful or even try to "mess" with anglophiles. Not so! I had to deal with some technical stress immediately upon arrival in Strasbourg (my US-Western Europe electricity adaptor was fine but I had neglected a simple 2:3 way adaptor, sigh) and went off in search of an electronics store.

I wonder if there is an Hungarian equivalent? I left CEU last night in a downpour. As I turned out of the main entrance the Basilica rose surreal. All shades of grey in the evening dusk, with the slightest twinge of sepia from the rain. It was stunning. An aesthetic moment. :-) I was drenched in less than three minutes, so I changed my mind about dinner out (no fun in sopping clothes) and headed back to the dorm to wring myself out. Upon debarking the train at Deák Ferenc tér, the most wonderfully happy percussion music swelled in the underground. Brought a spontaneous grin to my face! Gosh – how did I get so happy?

No explanation. Found a great source for the interpreting research, and some other references in the library here. Didn’t get as much done otherwise as I had hoped (ugh), but nonetheless, there I was, “feeling groovy.”

Who’s over 40?!!! The crew from CEU spent varying amounts of social time with us on Friday, dependent upon previous obligations and however much stress they were feeling due to their theses being due in three weeks. (We “UMasser’s” are still in awe of the amount of work they churn out during their one year Master’s Program.)

While at CEU, Nitsan and I had a brief conversation about the Sabra Jews and their form of talk - which I didn´t recall then is specifically called dugri. I can’t remember exactly how it came up; I think Nitsan must have said something about Israeli directness in comparison with either Hungarian or U.S. modes of talk. I asked her, “Sabra?” And she said, “No, that was a way of making a distinction at a particular historical moment. We’re all Sabra now.” She went on to explain that the term was used to distinguish the first generation of Jews born in Israel after the state was established from those who emigrated there. I don’t recall her words, but the meaning I took – what I remember – is that sabra was related to a sense of being (if I remember accurately) untainted or uncontaminated by exposure to the world out there, the gentile world, I guess, and its violence, discrimination, prejudice, etc. In other words it implied a certain sense of purity.

Matthias taught me this “most important phrase to know in German” while I was on the first train from Berlin to Strasbourg. He lives in Mannheim, so I’m looking forward to catching up with him again later this summer. I felt fortunate to meet someone who knew English, as my conversation with the wanting-to-be-chatty cab driver who took me from the airport to the train station gave me a good indication of potential trouble. He told me about a marathon being run in the city, indicating we’d have to take an experimental route. “ How long have you been driving a cab,” I asked, “8 million people,” he answered. :-)

In roughly 15 hours I'll be in route to Berlin. Not that I stay there very long (yet)...unless, as Briankle suspects, I can't find my way to the train station!

In the past few days I have actually felt excited - and at the end of this allnighter I do think I'll be "ready". In some respects it's reminiscent of my lesbian hunting days - the two years I spent working on the road scouring the west, southwest, and midwest for wimmin who wanted to participate in the National Lesbian Conference (Atlanta, 1991). This time I'm searching for interpreters. :-)

I'm leaving connections I'm loathe to leave, both of the more recent and of the longer term kind. And going toward . . . who knows? :-) Most of it will be amazing, I'm sure. Imagine, in three days I'll be witnessing the European Parliament! How awesome is that?!!