Anecdotal Evidence, Part II

Many years ago, a little after the Wawel Castle was first built, it was discovered that a dragon lived under the hill at the base of the castle. In a spectacular fight, some dude killed the dragon, and the dragon went on to become the symbol of the town. Nowadays a big Polish guy dresses up in a bright green dragon costume and introduces himself to all the people in the streets, saying hello, shaking hands, having his photo taken: the famous Krakow Dragon.

In Bangkok, he would shake your hand and then mention the $10 "hand shaking fee".

In Cuzco, he would ask you to take a photo of him with you and then mention the $10 "photo fee".

But in Krakow, he just tries to figure out what language to speak to you, and says "Hi! I'm the Krakow Dragon!"

Planes, Computers

Hiked a little over 4km to see Poland's largest air museum, which is free on Monday. Unfortunately i got there very late due to a mishap with some bad Chinese/Vietnamese food, and only had 30 minutes to shoot as much as i could before closing time. There were a variety of Soviet and Polish aircraft, and even a couple US, UK and German planes (older, WWII era). I saw nothing that made it stand out other than the quantity - there was one large hangar full of planes and the outside field had a couple rows of old fighter planes. None of them looked to be in pristine condition, and i didn't see a fantastic find, like a downed F-117 or the Enola Gay, but perhaps i don't realise the rarity of what i was seeing. The only other people there was a school tour, looked to be 13 year olds.

I think it's funny that on my first day in Krakow i walk 1.5 hours to an air museum before seeing the traditional castles or art museums in the area, but i have yet to make it to the Yankee Air Museum so close to where i live. I did check my email before venturing out.

A lot of the net cafes in Prague use linux. Even the free net access at the hotel i stayed at was run on a debian-based system (the others used fedora). A couple were using W98 and W2K, but i was told that linux is quit popular with the net cafes. It looked like most of them were set up to discard changes upon reboot, and they seemed to be running recent versions of software, implying either an auto-patch mechanism set up, or some a person-service that did this for the places. The only place i've been to in Krakow uses WinXP; i'll have to check out some other places tomorrow.

I wonder if someone sells a packaged linux that provides these services, or if there's a free distro out there that does all this already. Doesn't seem that it would be that difficult to set up an OpenBSD install cd to be a kiosk-type workstation, but perhaps browser plugin issues would prevent this from happening.

Reasons for Travelling

Travelled from Prague to Krakow by train last night; arrived at 5:30am and spent the dawn walking around the city centre. The snow i missed in Michigan greeted me in Krakow, and the parks and old churches here look quite nice in the morning light. Still, after a couple hours of walking and photographing, i was a bit cold.

In Prague i was fortunate enough to meet Pam, an old friend, who happens to be teaching English there. I stayed the first few nights in a hotel, but once i reached Pam i spent a couple nights on her couch.

Sometimes i wonder why i travel, what the point is, what there is to see, to experience.
Pam was arguing about the differences between digital and analog photography, mostly that digital is evil, an argument highlighted by the demise of her digital camera. I asked to take a look at her camera - the problem was that four of the pins in the compact flash slot were bent so as to not make contact with the card, thus disabling the camera. A couple small flathead screwdrivers or some extreme needlenose pliers would fix the problem, but unfortunately those were not available. Instead i used scissors (taken apart using a larger screwdriver), a bent paperclip (custom bent for the job), a wobbly knife, and my handy flashlight. After a little over an hour i managed to wiggle the pins into place and now her camera works again. I must admit i did not think i was going to be able to fix that, and having done so is oddly one of the top highlights of the trip, possibly even of the year.

On Sunday Pam and a number of friends went to Pilsen to have a Thanksgiving dinner with another American teacher living there. She invited me along and i accepted. The woman in Pilsen, Kristin, cooked a variety of dishes, and since Pam had told her about my eating habits, a number of the dishes were vegan.
Years ago i started having issues with Thanksgiving - i've never really had the traditionally American upbringing in this regards, but something special/different has happened for most of them. Some were quite good, like the first i spent in the States, in my brother's apartment, eating his first attempt at Spaghetti alla Carbonara (i loved it). Others were wierd, like the last i spent in Rome with my mother (where was my father again?) or the time my brother and i helped my mother move.
Lately they had just been getting real sad, but the past couple years have seen a turnaround.
2 years ago i travelled to Cambodia and spent Thanksgiving eating rice and vegetables in some village. Last year i was in Rome and ate turkey with Maudi, an old friend from high school (yes, turkey - it was that kind of situation). This year i stumbled into a vegan dinner in Pilsen, Czech Republic, including vegan stuffing and vegan apple pie, and local moonshine. This was not the kind of dinner i expected, and was a great, wonderful time.

Perhaps next year i will even be able to again spend this holiday in the States.

One of the main reasons i travel is to spend some time alone - truely alone, when even the words are unfamiliar. But everywhere i go is someone i know. Along with meeting Pam on this trip i have also met someone whose best friend runs a business (along with Mark's brother) in Ann Arbor, and another fellow from Canton, MI. Even Cambodia held people i knew.

Perhaps the world is telling me i am not alone; i wonder what friend i will meet when i go to Rwanda.

Anecdotal Differences

I threw away a ziploc bag today. It was in good condition, only a little dirty with some crumbs inside. In Cambodia, someone would probably fish the bag out of my trash and use it at home, but here i imagine it will be buried in a garbage heap or get incinerated.

Poorer countries seem so much more resourceful in their recycling efforts - no need to spend vast resources recycling plastics into new plastics, just reuse the old containers, like litre bottles measure and hold gasoline for sale, or float in the river to indicate where the fisherman's net is, or get used as sleds or line walkways (unfortunate flip side: no need to compost your throwaways, the poorest folks will take it from the trash and eat it, and no worries about disease or health - they're poor people after all).

Prague Initial Observations.

Arrived in Prague easily after the flight delays out of DTW. Got here a few hours behind schedule, but as i did not know what i was doing once i got here, it didn't really matter (was a bit more tired than i would have been, but otherwise no big deal).

This town seems rather safe; it is quite unlikely that i would get mugged here. My reasoning behind this? All the buses i have been on still have their emergency mini-hammers on them. I don't remember ever being on a bus (excepting a very, very new bus) that still had its mini-hammers - they are too easy a target for anyone feeling onery. If Czechs don't even feel onery enough to steal the mini-hammers, then this must be a safe place.

So far Prague seems very similar to Belgrade or Zagreb, well maybe inbetween those two (Zagreb seeming a wealthier town and Belgrade a poorer one). A hilly city, old fanciful buildings mixed with newer, plain buildings, a smattering of ornate churches, and a number of stark commie-era Things. The sidewalks are either broken cement or well-kept mosaic stone (these being simple patterns and usually accompanied by cobblestone roads). Haven't explored too much, just a few klicks around my hotel. Tomorrow i'll try to make it to some tourist areas.

Leaving Detroit

On my way to Prague for my birthday, on the first plane from DTW to Frankfurt. A few minutes after i get on the plane i fall asleep, before we even leave the terminal. I wake up as the plane is heading back to the DTW terminal. For a few seconds i think that i am returning from my trip, and perhaps i drank so much absinthe that i forgot the whole thing, but i feel my face and do not feel the wrinkles of old age (30+) so know that we have yet to leave.

Pieces keep falling off the plane, and we keep needing to have them fixed (only in the States, too many lawsuits).

A couple hours later the flight will leave and hours after that it will land uneventfully in Frankfurt. I will need to make other arrangements to get to Prague, but these will all be paid for by NWA, increasing their debt. The only real problem i will face is feelings of depression at missing the 3 inches of snow that will fall in Ann Arbor on my birthday.

Languages

At the hospital today. To my right sat a woman reading a book in Hebrew - judging by the cover, it looked like a novel. To my left sat a younger woman practicing Arabic in a workbook. In the middle, i was reading a book on the internals of Solaris.

graphing paper

I made graphs today. Not very pretty ones, just generic MS Excel graphs.

I like making graphs: uncreative work to present uncreative, repetitive tasks - 5 runs of 3 tests on 3 variables, summarized in 6 pages (with my name on each one) that only 4 people will ever see and will influence nothing at all, but serves to answer the question "how was your weekend?" in the most mundane, straightforwardly obfuscated manner possible - thus being precisely the embodiment of how my weekend was.

I like run-on sentences too- long-winded explorations of misuses of punctuation, adjectives, and clauses, used to say what should be said in a Hemingway phrase but ultimately saying little to nothing at all.