Praha in Three

Well, it's been a while since I last updated, but it's been a busy month. Since my last entry I've graduated from Fordham, meaning I'm now an alumni--which makes me feel old--but on the other hand I've also received a degree--which makes it all worthwhile. Yesterday, my parents and I went shopping for new luggage. My previous set was on its last leg, having gone to China, Europe, Mexico, and numerous other places within the US. The new luggage is a great piece of gear for my next adventure and will hopefully last through many more to come.

The details of the summer program are starting to come together. The international leaders have been keeping in touch through a Google group, through which we can share information about ourselves and help each other out. During each camp there will be international nights where each of us has to represent our country. We've been giving feedback to each other about what we want to know about the other's country. I'm the most excited to talk to the leader from Izmir, Turkey. Since I have a few weeks after the camps, I definitely want to go to Turkey for a week and spend a few days in Istanbul, before making my way to Cappadocia for a few days. Cappadocia is a part of Turkey that has been molded by volcanoes and shaped by erosion. The rock formations are spectacular and the porous rock allows for underground cities, castles in the side of cliffs, giant rock columns, and much more. Here's how one blogger describes Cappadocia:

“an incredible volcanic-created landscape of fairy chimneys, natural stone castles and underground dwellings of ancient civilizations and early Christian hideouts. It is one of those unique places on Earth where nature and humans lived in harmony over the years and left over amazing traces of Civilizations and Culture.”

Check out some pictures here: Cappadocia, Turkey.

Besides Turkey, I plan to spend a few days in Berlin (Germany), Krakow (Poland), and Vienna (Austria). From Prague, Berlin and Vienna are 4-5 hours by train and Krakow is about 8.5 hours by train. I don’t know if I’ll have enough time to do all of them, but I’d really want to see these cities and at least do the tourist stuff.

When I’m actually in Prague, I’m going to be very busy. I’m a little disappointed that the weather forecast for my first week there is rain and a high of 70°F. But otherwise, when I arrive, I’ll be going straight to work on the projects that the students will have to complete in small teams (with their leader’s help). Right now, my boss has been working hard with the top four universities in Prague to get their input for what they would like the students to realize over their two week session with us. So far I worked with Lessya, from Kazakhstan, to outline the projects that we will be giving the students during the camp. I’ll tell you more about them once we figure out the details and have more information from the universities. One thing for sure that I’m looking forward to in Prague is a Green Day concert that all of the leaders and MBM staff are going to on June 29^th! It’ll be a ton of fun even though I don’t listen to Green Day that much. I’ll probably have another update before I leave, but if not, the next post will be from Prague. Stay tuned, knowing me and travelling, it’s bound to be a great story…