The End of Things

So, today I leave Praha. This is such a beautiful city with great cultural, architectural and natural beauty, as well as some interesting quirks. What was my favorite thing about Prague? It's hard to choose between some of the great moments, but I loved to go in the evening to the Charles Bridge and watch the Vlatava River. In the evening the sunlight would be soft, illuminating everything gently, and the crowds were gone, and even though you were in a city, it was almost quiet, and watching the Vlatava would be mesmerizing and peaceful. If you ever get the chance, go to Prague. I don't think you could be disappointed.

See you on the flipside.

Here's a good quote to share with a friend...

So I'm reading John Gardner's The Art of Fiction: Notes on Craft for Young Writers for class. And I'm reading some interesting musings in a chapter called "Interest and Truth," and I read the following:

Some bad men write good books, admittedly, but the reason is that when they're writing they're better men than when they beat their wives and children.

Oh, I think I'll just let that stand there on its own.

Congratulations!

I just wanted to say congratulations to the people of Spain. I just read an old article that on June 30 Spain legalized gay marriage with a vote of 187-147. The Prime Minister, Jose Luis Rodriguiz Zapatero, said this:

"We were not the first, but I am sure we will not be the last. After us will come many other countries, driven, ladies and gentlemen, by two unstoppable forces: freedom and equality."

The law grants marriage and children adoption rights, as well as property inheritance. The other two countries that have such national laws are The Netherlands and Belgium, and Canada is expected to pass a law by the end of July.

This is the best news I've heard since the disappointment at our November elections when 10 of 11 states declined to pass gay marriage laws, and in fact made marriage laws more restrictive.

Once again, congratulations to all! Let's have some champagne!

The Best Reasons to be a Prague TA

If you are a fill in TA for someone who at the last minute backed out, here is what happens:
1) the people in charge are grateful that you are filling in; subsequently they will thank you multiple times and take you out to lunch and dinner, and offer to buy you drinks all the time
2) the people in the class are grateful that you are filling in; subsequently they will thank you multiple times and offer to buy you drinks all the time
3) after a frantic couple of days of picking up the ruined peices that the other person left behind, your job will be a breeze since you aren't even in the class, but only assist with the out of class work, which is not very much
4) since the other person left a ruin behind them, they will look very poorly to the people in charge, and therefore you will look very well to the people in charge for cleaning up the ruin
5) you will be invited for various lunches and dinners that the other faculty and TAs are invited to, thereby allowing you to hang out with your colleagues and eat free lunches and dinners and drinks

The key is to keep a positive attitude whenever you are speaking to a student or someone in charge. Even during those few frantic days, and possible hectic situations in the future, keeping a positive attitude, and knowing that you will get through it sooner or later will in the end, just make you look like an all-around A+ TA.

Welcome to Praha

Hello from Prague! This is such a great city. (Yes, I'm still jet lagged, but I'm going to try to sound positive for the entirety of this post. :) Anyway, this is a great city. It has all this really old architecture (for instance, two sections of the city, Old Town and New Town, connected together to form a city, and at that time it was the second largest city after Rome, so that was QUITE a while ago) with the little winding alleys and everything, but then there are also trees. There are tons of trees! This city is very green, and lots of nice walking areas. And there's a Tesco (which maybe isn't that cool, but since I know where anything is, I know I can probably get what I need from a Tesco). There are a lot of cool looking stores, plenty of fresh flower shops on the street, lots of sculptures and statutes on the streets--in other words, this city has a lot of culture besides just being cool looking. It has a lot of art and literature history, so a great place for a writer to be for awhile. Anyway, I plan on posting every once in awhile throughout the month, so I'll keep you updated about Praha!