Canada - First Impressions

Canada is one of the biggest and most developed countries in the world, and the neighbor of our current residence, the USA. Still, sometimes we feel that going beyond the stereotypes (ice hockey, mounted police etc.) we know so little about it. Our friend, Toma, has recently arrived at this beautiful place and shares some of his first impressions about the True North.

By Toma Eisenbech

When I told my friends that I am going to study in Canada, virtually all reacted: “OMG, you’re gonna freeze to death!” Okay, okay, I don’t really believe in stereotypes, and my landing in Victoria BC proved that I was right. I came from Denmark which is the surface of the Venus compared to the sunny weather shone into my eyes at the onset of the year. Long story short: the Vancouver Island is the Florida of Canada. I never thought the snowfall could shock this nation, but it truly happened: the schools had been closed due to a negligible amount of few centimeter of snow coverage on the roads, the buses barely drove around the beautiful city of Victoria and people everywhere just kept talking about the surprise. This climatic remark gives place for organisms you would not expect in a country like Canada: for instance, the island is a home for an endemic hummingbird with growing population. People grow olives (yes, olives in Canada!) and walking in shorts in the middle of January. 

But I don’t want to talk too much about the weather, you know living abroad, the first question you always receive during a phone call from your family is how is the weather. Followed by “what did you eat?” So now let’s get to the food. Something like Canadian cuisine does not really exist. Canada is clearly a multi-cultural country, and the food reflects it. Lines of Asian restaurants, American fast food chains, Turkish kebab stalls and pizza slices. You may not know that for instance the Hawaiian pizza was invented in Canada. If I have to name one unique Canadian dish, I would mention the poutine. Okay, it is nothing really special. Basically, it is French fries poured with gravy and sprinkled with cheese curds. And the other is the“beaver tail”. I should clarify before you stop reading and running away, it is a pastry, and no furry animals have been sacrificed to make it.

But there is one stereotype which is certainly true about Canada, and that is the politeness. I’ve been living in Denmark for three years, and I always thought that Danes are super-polite but honestly, they dwarf to Canadian people or Canucks as they call themselves. I was really close to laughing when I first faced the situation when people get off the bus shouting to the driver: “Thank you!” It becomes so funny by a frequent bus stop where dozens of passengers leave the bus at the same time and “thank you-ing” in almost a melodic repetition. Signs on shops say “Sorry, we’re closed.” And when you accidentally elbow somebody, they will say sorry for sure. When Justin Trudeau, the Canadian prime minister unwittingly elbowed one of the members of the parliament, he apologized 4 times (!!) during each subsequent plenary session.

 

The Vancouver Island is a beautiful area with large forest coverage and rivers with flourishing nature, but there is one thing which is a bit frightening, and this is called the Big One. Shortly, there is a small tectonic plate next to the Vancouver Island called the Juan de Fuca plate that is pushed by the massive Pacific plate, forcing it to subdue under the North American plate. There is some joints which repress the movement of the Juan de Fuca, but due to the increasing pressure, the joints will eventually break. And when it happens the Big One will come. It will be a mega-earthquake, seismologists predict that this will be much bigger than the earthquake which shocked Indonesia in 2004. And the forecast is not so hopeful: there is a 30 percent chance that it will happen during the next 50 years. Victoria tries to prepare for it: I read in the news yesterday that the British Columbian army participates in a specialized training to prepare for the earthquake and the Mayor of Victoria posted on the Facebook that the municipality has started working on new protection plans.

I’ll keep you updating about living in Canada, hopefully, the Big One won’t come until my next post :) 

The photos are made by the author

The Best of January

So we are back with all the best we have seen and read during the first month of 2017.

1. [SERIES] 30 for 30  

Sport has a unique place in the American society. In contrast to Europe, this elevated status makes sport and its stories integral part of the national culture. ESPN’s award-winning 30 for 30 series builds on this special position of sports in the American psyche.  In each episode, we see a personal story of a legendary athlete, team, or game. Whether it tells us about the redemption and comeback of Marion Jones (probably the best episode so far), the rise of the Detroit Pistons “bad boys” during the 1980s, or Wayne Gretzky's move from Edmonton to Los Angeles, the series does it in a profoundly sensitive, and captivating way. This is not a coincidence – most of the episodes are directed by acclaimed documentary directors, who accepted ESPN’s invitation to contribute to the series. For us Hungarians, the story of two former Yugoslavian basketball players – the Croat Drazen Petrovic, and the Serb Vlade Divac – was the most emotional. This two genius have formed the core of their legendary national team. They moved to the MBA at the same time, became closest friends before turning into bitter enemies when Yugoslavia went down in flames, and their nations started a war against each other. While there is no happy ending offered (Petrovic died in car accident, and Divac never managed to heal their friendship before that), this story blends the American dream and the Central European realities in a way that it will not leave you untouched.

2. [BOOK-FICTION] The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden - by Jonas Jonasson

For some time, I have been aware of the quality and success of the Scandinavian crime genre (read Stieg Larson’s Millenium trilogy – simply the best in its kind). However, I have not explored the Nordic literature more deeply. Thus I was very curious when I started Jonas Jonasson’s “The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden” novel. And boy that was amazing – hilariously witty, fascinating, full of energy and joy. Yet the story covers some serious matter – institutionalized racism and oppression in South Africa, nuclear bomb, looming inequalities in some parts of the Swedish society. Moreover, Nombeko’s strong, independent and intelligent character makes the book a virtual feminist manifesto. So while I laughed my head off reading it, Jonasson’s novel has managed to excel on other levels as well.

3. [MOVIE - FICTION] Hell or High Water

The Oscars (Academy Awards for the elegant ones) are coming up – so you will read a lot about chances, secret favorites, gala dresses and other PR mumbo jumbo. But don’t care about that, just sit down to watch some of the truly outstanding movies we have right now. We did the same for a couple of evenings. While some flicks were okay, but below our expectations (I know it is heresy to say, but I felt like that with Star Wars Rogue One), or pretty good, yet not an instant classic as some movie folks hyped them (Arrival), there was one film that stood out from the crowd. David Mackenzie’s Hell or High Water is a brutally powerful, sobering neo-Western about the rural regions and communities, which were left behind. Set in Texas this bank-robbery story reflects on some of the most pressing social issues (bank foreclosures, slowly dying small towns) in a subtle, yet very moving way. Jeff Bridges is truly marvelous playing the brusque, retiring Texas Ranger, plus we have never seen Chris Pine using his acting skills so well (or at all) before.

4. [MOVIE - DOCUMENTARY ] 13th

 While Hell or High Water tells us about the small-town, white folks left without chances and broken communities, Netflix’s documentary, 13^th, shows us another American group being under attack. The movie focuses on the mass incarceration of Blacks in the U.S. The numbers are terrifying. However the story behind them is the real target of 13^th- we follow how the GOP establishment (Nixon, Reagen, Bush the older) and big business (managing the prisons is one of the largest and most lucrative industries in the nation) invented the war against crime and drug to harness it to their political and economic benefit. Watching the 120-minute documentary we couldn’t help to feel frustrated, and angry – the numbers and trends are crystal clear and brought by the best experts in the field (including our favorite Van Jones). If you put 13^th next to Hell and High Water, you will come to the conclusion that these two, very different groups are victims of the same political forces, who since the 1970s turned social and economic policies into a neo-capitalist nightmare. Tragically, they even managed to create a situation where the majority of these groups – white men in left-behind rural counties and young blacks in big cities - harbor suspicion, and hatred against each other, while huge profits are earned by the big boys…

5. [BOOK - NONFICTION] Fareed Zakaria In Defense of a Liberal Education

This book launched itself with a perfect timing to the post-truth era, making a case for studying majors like History or English literature. A classic liberal education will provide you with the ability think critically and analytically, be good friends with facts - skills much needed in the Trump era. Zakaria proves brilliantly that universities has to make you ready for your fifth job, not your first. 

Best moments of the Florida roadtrip

It's a Saturday afternoon, when I am writing this post, I'm surrounded with the wintery Missouri: it's cold (-4 C), quiet, gloomy and snowy. It's magical within its own genre, of course. It seems unbelievable, though, that a month before I was laying on a warm, sandy beach and enjoying the sound of the Atlantic ocean. 

One of the many things we share, Dave and I, is our passion for traveling. We've arrived at the States with very few certainties. We had an empty space to answer questions like how long are we gonna stay here and how exactly are we gonna spend our lives, or what is going to be the next chapter. There was one thing, though, that was absolute: WE WILL TRAVEL, no matter what, and as much as possible during our stay here.

The winter break was a long-enough period for an adventurous vacation, and we decided early on that instead of sitting in our St. Louis home with no Christmas mood or decoration whatsoever, we'd rather hit the road with our car and discover this continent. We picked Florida, mostly because of the weather (25-29 C degrees, the sun, the ocean, warm beaches), and also because of the peninsula's richness in attractions. (No, we didn't go to theme parks or Disney-world, there are plenty to do without them.)

The travel was exuberant, dense, and amazing. We traveled approximately 5000 km in less than two weeks, entered museums, national parks, swaps, space-centers. We discovered great American cities, Atlanta in Georga and Miami in Florida. We saw the coral reefs of the Florida Keys.

Several places that we visited had such a strong effect on us that we would dedicate a separate post to them. From the rest of our travel, I tried to pick the most amazing moments - and show them to you.

Atlanta skyline
Atlanta is vibrant, colorful,  a booming city with an impressive skyline - and a mild weather. Home of the Coca-Cola Company, CNN headquarters, the birthplace of Martin Luther King.

Miami skyline
Following a photo-blog article, we wanted to find a specific spot from where Miami shows its nicest skyline. Unfortunately, that very spot is not available for public anymore. Just a couple of yard away, though, there was some sort of special airport - to which we could sneak in and shot some amazing pictures.

Okefenokee swamp
At the border of Georga and Florida, you find this hidden, peaceful treasure. It is vast, and calm, and magnificent.  I don't think this photo needs any further comment.

Bahia Honda beach
Without a question, this was the most beautiful place during our trip. The bridge in the picture belonged to the railway that used to connect the Florida Keys with the peninsula itself. However, in 1935, on Labor Day, a hurricane tore it apart - it was one of the strongest hurricanes to hit the US.
During the reconstruction, instead of restoring the railway,  U.S. 1 highway had been started to build  - leaving the bridge as a romantic background to this beach.

10 Things You Did Not Know about Martin Luther King

Tomorrow, on 01.16., the United States celebrates Martin Luther King day. Four days later, the first black president in the history of the nation will leave office. What comes next is highly uncertain. It is fitting that both events will happen in the same week – the coincidence will reflect that a big part of the dreams of the Atlanta-born minister and martyr are still not fulfilled. It also gives us a chance to see beyond the icon of King, and see the real man who dreamt of "black man and white man, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands..."

1. King was  progressive with a strong leftist agenda

The hero of civil rights. That is the first thing that comes to mind when you hear Martin Luther King’s name. Rightly so – the advancement of the American Blacks would have been unimaginable without MLK’s leadership. While his life gives hope, inspiration, and example for civil right activist all around the world, we shall not forget that from a political point of view King was a very progressive, leftist public figure. He understood that civil rights and economic justice are not separate but interconnected ideas – neither of them can stand on its own, a fair society has to provide both. He has raised the issues of working conditions, housing shortage, raising the minimum wage, creating a “guaranteed income”, and several other pressing social inequalities. All of this effort culminated in the Poor People’s Campaign, which took him to Memphis to support the sanitation worker’s strike. It turned out to be the last stop in his life.

 King's house reconstructed at the King Center, Sweet Auburn, Atlanta

Considering his stance on these issues, no wonder that some parts of the conservative elites want to downplay this part of his life. What they project is a “cleared” Martin Luther King image – a man who only speaks about civil rights, and sometimes peace (do not forget in some circles Vietnam still looks like a heroic fight against communism), nothing else. These forces want us to forget the fact that social injustice still rules the land, and most of MLK’s message would be still relevant today, after those many years. "He was for civil right, he died for that cause, now we have civil rights, end of story" – as their reasoning and communication goes. Some lunatics of them even boast the idea that King was staunch free-market conservative. Do not let yourself be fooled, read his works and speeches instead:

“The evils of capitalism are as real as the evils of militarism and evils of racism”

 

"Why are there forty million poor people in America? And when you begin to ask that question, you are raising questions about the economic system, about a broader distribution of wealth.’ When you ask that question, you begin to question the capitalistic economy. And I’m simply saying that more and more, we’ve got to begin to ask questions about the whole society…"

      2. He married a fantastic woman

      While King himself is widely known outside of the U.S., his wife, Coretta Scott King stays in his shadow. However, she was an incredible woman, who has her place in history on her own merits. The singer turned minister's wife was not only the mother of their four children, but MLK’s closest advisor, and partner in the movement. Despite the fact that King was a serious womanizer, we have every reason to believe that the couple had a strong and good marriage. After King’s death, Coretta continued his work becoming an advocate for women and LGBT rights. She established King Center, where she lays next to his husband.

The tomb of Martin Luter King and Coretta Scott King

3.   MLK and Hungary

Although I knew that Martin Luther King’s work mostly focused on domestic issues, I was happy and surprised that one of his most brilliant writing, the “Letter from Birmingham Jail” featured a mention of my home country, Hungary. King uses the Hungarian revolution of 1956 as an example for the fight against injustices that are codified into laws, thus enforcing them seems legally perfect. While this is a complex and difficult legal and philosophical question, the bottom line was crystal clear in the Budapest of 1956 and Birmingham of 1963 as well.

“We should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was “legal” and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was “illegal.”

4. His greatest speech was half-improvised

The pulpit in the Ebenezer Baptist Church, Sweet Auburn, Atlanta, where King delivered some of his greatest speeches

King’s most memorable speech was the “I have the dream” speech, which he delivered in Washington D.C. in front of the Lincoln Memorial as part of the March On Washington demonstration of 1963. In the previous days, King struggled to come up with the final draft of the speech. On the eve of the big day, he finished the drafting with his aides saying: "My brothers, I understand. I appreciate all the suggestions. Now let me go and counsel with the Lord." Still, the morning version has not included the famous line and the following parts. What actually happened was that King used the draft for the first half of his speech (he essentially read it), and improvised the second part from his previous sermons. You may see the shift in this video starting around 12:10.

5. King, the Star Trek addict

King was a huge Star Trek fan. He has even convinced the actress Nichelle Nichols to stay on the show, that she wanted to leave after the first season, and thus continued to provide the first black character on prime television who confronted the racial stereotypes of the time.

6. King and tobacco

 A rare photo: King with a cigarette (by Bob Fitch)

It is little-known that MLK smoked – he tried to hide his habit from the public to avoid all the negative connotations. The practice even survived him – after he was shot in Memphis on his hotel balcony, where he stepped out to have a cigarette before dinner, one of his aides took the cigarettes out of the deadly wounded King’s pocket.

7. The incredible first assassination attempt on MLK

King with the letter opener in his chest - he has not sneezed... (by: Vernoll Coleman)

King had a previous assassination attack ten years earlier. Interestingly, a black woman stabbed him with a letter opener during a book signing event in New York.  One of two police officers who were the first at the scene was black, the other one white, just as the two surgeons performing the operation saving King’s life. Later he wrote in his autobiography: "When I was well enough to talk with Dr. Aubrey Maynard, the chief of the surgeons who performed the delicate, dangerous operation, I learned the reason for the long delay that preceded surgery. He told me that the razor tip of the instrument had been touching my aorta and that my whole chest had to be opened to extract it. 'If you had sneezed during all those hours of waiting,' Dr. Maynard said, 'your aorta would have been punctured and you would have drowned in your own blood”. King went on to use "If I had sneezed…" line in several of his speeches.

"I have been to the mountaintop" Arguably the best MLK speech - one day before his death

8. King and Rhett Butler

The Ebenezer Church in Sweet Auburn, Atlanta - MLK's father was a pastor here, a role later took over by King

On December 15, 1939, as a member of the Ebenezer Baptist Church Choir the ten-year-old King was present at the premiere of the legendary movie Gone with the Wind.  This film, with all of its values, is frankly a nostalgic tribute to the “lost cause” of the slave-owning South.

9.  King traveled to India to study Gandhi’s success

After the successful Montgomery bus boycott, where he used some of the methods of Gandhi’s nonviolence movement, King wanted to learn more about the lessons of the India’s struggle for independence. So in an unprecedented move, he and Coretta traveled to India, where they spent a month touring and studying the takeaways of the nonviolence struggle. I firmly believe that this example shall be followed by us, contemporary progressives – especially as with globalization, our causes are even more connected and similar than in 1950’s.

10.   Westminster Abbey

King is one of the ten modern martyrs who received commemorating statue in the Westminster Abbey, in London, UK, in 1998.

If not marked otherwise, pictures were taken by Dave at Martin Luther King Center, Atlanta

And how is your life in St. Louis?

Since our arrival, maybe a little after than that, that's the question we get most from friends and family. 'How do you spend your time in St. Louis? What do you two exactly do in a week?' And the curiosity targets me especially, I know, as my position and activities this year is much more blurred than Dave's. Everyone can imagine a school, but no one has any idea what I'm up to with my days.

St. Louis in a chilly night, from East St. Louis. 

By the time we've hit three months being in the USA (around early November), I am proud to say that we've developed a weekly schedule. A schedule that was built on goals, reachable and realistic ones. A schedule that has demanded a lot from us, created the sense of achievement after workdays, yet demanded not too much, didn't take away the fun. I don't even remember the last thing I was as proud as to this achievement. If I don't take home anything else from the States but the skill and ability to build my days from scratch no matter the circumstances, that's already a huge added value to my life.

At the beginning, we had to build up our daily routines out of nothing. It is funny, how time works - I think back to August and it feels like it was two years ago. We both - but basically me - were in the thin air, no institution whatsoever around us. (Okay, Dave has the MBA, but classes are held only on two days of the week in big chunks. So that's not much help for a harmonious weekly schedule.)

I had no workplace, no university courses where I could sneak in, no remote working projects. No language classes or any other appointments to show up. Not even a single yoga class to keep me on time. Nothing at all. In everything I was doing, I was accountable only to myself.  

Think, how rare that is in your life when you don't belong to any institution. Institutions regulate our days and weeks since kindergarten. Schools and university, workplaces, whatever - there will be some sort of official legal framework for the most part of our day. This is even true for your sports activity - it's set in a fixed place, fixed date, and there's an institution behind that service. 

Not having any of this is scary at first. What will stop me to spend whole days in bed if (when) things turn bad? How exactly will I gain experience from this year if I don't belong to anywhere? It took me weeks go get used to it. But once I reached that point, it has become an overwhelmingly liberating feeling. You suddenly have all the time you can possibly have, and all the freedom to do good things with your time. It's like a full year vacation! Imagine what can you do during that time. Things you always wanted to try. Things you long owe to yourself. It's like flying in the air. If you know how not to fall, you will never want to give up that level of freedom.

I made a huge list of possible activities and projects and downscaled it to a handful that realistically can be done.  I govern my days and weeks, answering only to myself, and I am super happy with that. I have no idea how I will transition back to the 'normal' institution-packed life. 

So here it is, how we start and finish our weeks, and what do we do in between.

Sunday

Our weeks start with Sundays. It's not because of the States, as here weekly calendars start with the Sunday. Even back in Europe, we both struggled to spend Sundays as part of the weekend. It is not a full-value free day, I start to recognize Monday is coming. So instead of starting Monday in a rush, our week starts on mid-Sunday. After a big sleep and a cozy morning, we plan together our week, go through the calendar, untangle some potentially tangled programs. I usually cook on the afternoons and set priorities for the week ahead. We walk hand in hand in the beautiful neighborhood and fall asleep after watching a great movie or parts from our current favorite series.

Cooking
Cooking and other household activities are a big chunk of what we do here. The cooking mainly falls on me, because I prefer to eat something that is surely delicious. It turned out, I get along very well in the kitchen. We are still alive, we didn't grow three times of our size in the U.S. (yet), and both of us truly enjoy our meals. This little piece of satisfaction was a huge plus at the beginning, the secure and stable part of our days spent in constant change.

When I mention cooking (and my satisfaction with my progress), I mean a lot of it - we eat cooked, home-made meals for every single lunch and dinner, seven days a week. Planning, coordinating, scheduling and executing such an amount of work was a demanding task at the beginning.

And since, cooking grew to a kind of art and pleasure for me. Music is on, and I completely lost myself while cutting veggies or preparing rice. And I'm more and more interested: diverse food, all sort of cuisine, cutting edge methods, raw material prepared in new ways. Recently I caught myself reading many food blogs (right after the morning The New York Times sessions).

Monday - Thursday

The really hard working days. We get up around 7 am, and after a nice morning routine, we ready to work by 9ish. During autumn, I focused on my TOEFL exam, and Dave targeted his MBA studies. Another priority for both of us is to introduce our UX (user experience) company, Webabstract, to the St. Louis IT and business community. So on most nights either only me or both of us are going to networking events, usually from 5 pm till 9 pm. It's super exciting, and to my greatest surprise, I like it very much.

The reason why I decided to get more involved with UX design and IT in general lays in my specific visa regulations, and I plan another post about that subject. But I am very satisfied with the current way of things, it forced me to open up from my NGO world toward new directions. As far as I'm concerned, basic IT skills, like coding, is going to be the new set and measure of literacy for the next generation. I really don't mind to pick some of that knowledge up in St. Louis.

Morning routines

Apart from me getting ready to attend Anglo-Saxon universities, Dave learning whatever necessary for his MBA program, and both of us managing Webabstract, some new and exciting parts of our days are our mornings. You know what? Given we don't have to get up early to outside demand, we have time for a great and comfortable morning every day. That is mostly because of the new morning routine we developed since we arrived. I was obsessed with productivity and morning routines over more than a year or so, and starting over in a new place was the perfect boost to root new habits into our life. So now, our mornings consist a bunch of new-wave stuff and a nice breakfast. No morning rushes anymore, and after the routine, we are usually super motivated and focused for the day (except, of course, when Trump wins the presidency and similar catastrophes).

Friday

Friday is the closing of the week, and our favorite day. During the autumn, we started Fridays by sitting outdoors in the next door café in the morning sunlight with a cup of real coffee and evaluated the week (throughout autumn, we had 15-19 C degrees, warm sunlight and ravishing colors, autumn was a true miracle here). We recognize what went well and what are the lessons learned. What I really like in these days is that we don't do everyday work - we rather look at our progress from a strategical perspective and plan ahead.

After that comes the reading session. It's a couple of hours long session during which we aim to read big chunks of important literature - about economics, international relations, society, and social justice, but also about business and marketing. We target the more difficult, academic readings for this focused time - and have some exciting plans what to do with the accumulated knowledge. 

Friday is also the day for cleaning up the apartment, and doing everything that you would label 'maintenance'. The only time of the week I'm willing to cook a two-course meal is for Friday evening, to single that evening out from all the other evenings.

This pic was made at the Webster University Libary.

Saturday

The day in Heaven. The day offline. The day in nature. The day in bed. The day in front of our favorite series. Depends on our mood, Saturday is dedicated to pure recreation. There is only one rule - there is no work (no matter the circumstances). Since we work together, this regulation was especially important to introduce, as otherwise, we would turn to two project managers somehow ended up living together. Saturday is our day as two souls, as a married couple, we walk around the Forest Park, visiting the zoo, discovering all the museums, boating on the lake. Whatever makes us joyful. St. Louis is a progressive city that offers a great supply of programs, with still plenty to discover during the winter.

This photo depicts me with the Arch.

The blog
I love having it and writing it! Anytime I have "editorial" meeting with Dave, we are always super excited, plan ahead, think about interesting topics and different angles for a particular story. The aim is to find a nice balance between writing about public subjects and letting you in into our everyday life - struggles and joy in the States as two immigrants. Actually, my obsession with writing came to point that I'm considering to become a writer :)

Dave gone wild at the Blues Museum. Still thinking of the name of the band. 

And that's a full circle. Of course, this is a description of an ideal, flawless week (and also one in which we don't attend a social event), but it still grabs the pattern of our life and the main activities that now forms our everyday experiences.

The credit for the photos goes to the one and only Dave, except for the last one. That was me.