And leaving Slovakia

Wait, didn't I just get here? As is usually the case on these trips, everything has become a blur. I'm packing up this morning for another long day of travels. I catch a train at 10:24 here in Ruzemberok and then change trains about fifty minutes later in Zilina - and after that it's a five hour ride to Prague. This means I had better pack some goodies for the trip. I've been of trips before where I was certain there was a restaurant car, and found out to my chagrin/consternation that there wasn't, and almost starved to death. I've survived on the way over from Vienna on a couple Bounty candy bars, but I think I'll need something more substantial for the trip to Prague.

It was a nice stay in Ruzemberok, and, in addition to giving a well-attended student presentation and having a very fruitful meetings, I also caught up with some old friends. Out of the blue last night a couple professors from the Catholic University just showed up unplanned at my hotel because they figured I was bored - and took me out to the People's Cocktail Bar around the corner (the scene of the infamous cocktail napkin oath), but this was a far more tame one mojito evening. The Slovakians really are the most kind, caring people. I'll post some pictures when I have more time and better wifi.

Off to Prague!!

Back in Slovakia

One of the things that always amazes me about travelling is that, like a bad penny I suppose, I always do return. I'll leave some place and imagine that there is no way in hell that I'll ever return there (and usually remorsefully), but somehow I manage to make it back - which gives me hope for future return trips to Kasgar, China and the Ajanta and Ellora caves in India. My only previous trip to Slovakia was in the summer of 2009, on the tail end of my seven week seven country world tour. I spent a day in Bratislava and a cuple days in Ruzemberok, where the good folks at the Catholic University there had asked me to give a keynote address at a conference. Sadly, all of my Slovakia shots were in the camera that was pilfered in Barcelona, so my only shots are loaners from my friends. It really pained me because I had the best time here, and, as I've noted on a previous post, I was never treated better by anyone at a conference ever. So, I'm really excited to revisit the Catholic University of Ruzemberok and see my great friends Janka and Katarina - and hopefully they won't hold me to my sworn agreement to spend my sabbatical in Ruzemberok (I say this mainly because my signed agreement is on a cocktail napkin and we are rather worse for wear at the time - and although I love Slovakia and the thought of spending more time with these amazing people is very appealing - I'm concerned about the legal precedent). I left Vienna yesterday at 8:25 a.m. and arrived in Bratislava at 9:25 a.m., switched trains and left the station at 9:57 a.m. and arrived into Ruzemberok at 1:42 p.m.. I mention the times simply because every one of them was to the minute - I can't remember the last time a plane left on time in the U.S. let alone a train (oh, that's right, we don't have a functioning public transportation system in the U.S.). Anyway, I hope to get some replacement pictures today - I snapped a couple yesterday of downtown Ruzemberok, but the weather was pretty dreadful. Sadly, my great shots of downtown Bratislava and the hinterlands of Slovakia are long gone, although, obviously, I will be back.

Professor of the Year Redux

OK, I'm taking a few moments while I wait for my friend Janka to show up this morning and spirit me away to the Catholic University of Ruzemberok to try (depending up wifi speed) some pictures of the actual ceremony and reception for the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching U.S. Professor of the Year Award. The award ceremony itself was held in the posh W Hotel (thankfully not that W) in downtown Washington. My wonderful friend Debi Preston, who now is a Dean at Montgomery Community College in the Washington area, but who I have known since we used to team-teach classes together back at Georgia Perimeter College in Atlanta was kind enough to act as my date for the award ceremony - which also gave me a chance to see her family again after far too many years (but more on that later). At the award ceremony the forty-five state winners and the four national winners were recognized. I'm posting a picture of the award ceremony and also one of the two of us in our Sunday go to meeting clothes. Later in the evening there was a congressional reception for the winners at the Folger Shakespeare Library. Here's a nice picture of the Richard III statue out front (and I'm just that good an uncle to my nephews). The reception was held in the Great Hall, which was having a Henry VIII exhibit so I was right at home. While there I was fortunate to meet some of the other award winners. The last two pictures are me posing with Rochelle Johnson from the College of Idaho and Leyla Rouhi from Williams College in Massachusetts, and then with Karen Holman from Willamette University in Oregon (who, unfortunately, passed along the sad news that my friend Bob Dash from Willamette, who I met on my first trip to Jordan and who turned out to be just a wonderful guy, had passed away last year of cancer - he was that rare combination, a brilliant scholar and a truly great guy). Overall, it was a great day, and the award itself is very humbling.

Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire

As you might expect, Vienna is in full-blown Christmas mode (although it seems that Ruzemberok, from where I am currently writing, hasn't caught the bug yet). When I finished the tour of the museum I wandered around a little Christmas town full of shops that were centered in the Maria Theresaplatz. I did a little pre-shopping shopping, but mainly I just soaked in the atmosphere. I'm rather embarrassed to admit that for the first time in my life I tried chestnuts (although my attempt to utilize the word klein for small - which I rememembered from my Eastern European history classes with the amazing Dr. Sakmyster - as in kleindeutschland and grossdeutschland) failed magnificently (I still got the small, but in English). They were pretty good, although I think their main appeal was aesthetic. I followed that up with something I have to admit was not a new experience - a bratwurst, although this was new in that it was manhandled (or in this case womanhandled) into a womb of a cored-out half-loaf of delicious crusty bread in a motion that could only make me think of earlier discussions this semester with my students on symbolism in Freudian dream analysis. A very spicy mustard made for a simple but delightful treat.

Kunst Historisches Museum

And part of my love affair with Vienna relates to the Kunst Historisches Museum, which is just a couple blocks walk from the Wandl. Again, I've been fortunate to visit better museums (and I think the Hermitage in St. Petersburg would be my first choice) but there's just something about this museum which always draws me back. First of all, it is a very good museum with a substantial collection of Egyptian, Greek and Roman artifacts and an impressive portrait gallery - so much Bruegel and Titian (I rediscovered his Danae this time) and Rubens and Rembrandt and I was pleasantly surprised to remember that Botticelli's portrait of Guiliano de Medici is here (it always plays a big role in my Renaissance lecture - a lot of symbolism related to the death of his wife). However, a lot of it is, again, very personal. I can still remember the first time I ever walked into the museum. It was a few years ago on my first trip to Vienna (and it was also the first time I ever wrote in my actual travel journal, which means that whenever I reread the journal it immediately takes me back to those first tentative steps at writing, and also of exploring) - and the weather was horrible and the wind was howling, and I think I retreated into the museum as much to escape the weather as for any other reason. And I just lost myself in the museum - as I always do with all museums (ask anyone who has had the misfortune of going to a museum with me - it takes forever, and even if the person I'm with is ready to go I inevitably stay until they turn out the lights). I was feeling a little down this time, truthfully, but the museum immediately made me feel like I was visiting an old friend - which, in fact, I was.

Hotel Wandl

If I'm in Vienna then I must be staying at the Hotel Wandl (and my good friend Steve Wehmeyer is amused that I would have a "place" I always stay in Vienna). That said, I always stay at the Wandl. This is my fourth trip to Austria, and considering that on these trips I often pass back and forth through Vienna (and this trip is no exception) I've probably visited Vienna eight or nine times, and with the exception of one night I've always stayed at the Wandl. I'm attached to it for some very legitimate reasons (the chief one being its wonderful location right off the Stephenplatz, which is right in the center of town - and also because the staff is unfailingly pleasant and helpful, and they have a great breakfast) and in despite some very legitimate concerns (every time I stay at the Wandl they manage to put me in a smaller room - and this one, room 321, is just about a world record [although I stayed in a smaller room in Madrid one time, and I recorded it on this blog if you don't believe me], I can't imagine what room I'll be in next Saturday when I pass through Vienna again). However, I think I also stay here just because I have a real emotional attachment to the place. It was the first place I ever stayed in Vienna - and Vienna was the first European city that I ever spent much time in - and it gets wrapped up in all sorts of highly personal history for me - and I just can't imagine staying anyplace else. I love Vienna and I guess the Wandl, in a strange way, is just part of that love affair. As I get older my taste gets more and more exotic (and I'm developing a real desire to visit Samarkand and Timbuktu), but there's also something to be said for the comfort of this amazing old city, and it just holds a very special place in my heart.

Vermont Professor of the Year

On Thursday I was incredibly honored to be named the 2010 Vermont Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. I'd like to think my great friends and colleagues Bob Mayer, Cinse Bonino, and Chuck Bashaw - as well as our friend Katya Talalakina from the Higher School of Economics in Moscow - and my wonderful students Megan Percy and Jordan Wheeler - for nominating me and writing wildly laudatory supporting letters. I'd also like to thank my great friend Trish Siplon - a past and far more worthy recipient of the award - for promoting the idea in the first place. The award ceremony was held in the posh W Hotel in Washington, DC and later there was a congressional reception at the Folger Shakespeare Library. I had the chance to meet some of the other state winners as well as the national winners. All in all it was a wonderful experience, even though I am shamefully undeserving of the honor (but rest assured I didn't turn it down).