mothers and my european destiny

I'm still on retreat in NJ with family and friends and am feeling rather suffocated. It's hard to adjust to this strange bed and strange working area and the incredibly sallow, saturating lighting that brings out my little laugh lines. Being surrounded by the people I grew up with and the people who helped raised me is a bit jarring too, but I'll admit, it is comforting.

I'm peppered by questions ("Did you lose/gain weight?", "Do you have a boyfriend?") and reminded again and again of just how much I'm turning into my mother. Before, I used to dread and doubt this. How many times had we argued and disagreed? How is it possible we're so similar?

Now, I'm very flattered and honored. Only in recent years, as I've looked at my parents through an unbiased, more "adult" perspective, have I truly appreciated what a beautiful person she is inside and out. My mom is incredibly warm and compassionate. She's obsessed with kids - every Thanksgiving and Christmas she buys gifts for needy children through a charity she loves. I would be a much better person if I grew to be more like her.

Also, she has aged really well! Her skin is flawless and she has terrific taste - I grew up stealing her shoes! I took the above picture this summer when she came to visit me for a few days in the city. Surprisingly, she loved every aspect of New York, so I guess we're truly mother-daughter after all! I think she is a remarkable woman.

But I also need to have more adventure than my mom. She was content staying rooted in place, but I have an insatiable thirst for travel. That's why I'm thrilled to be studying abroad in Prague, Czech Republic in the fall.

(photo via nyu in prague)

Course selection for next year is super exciting. I'm lucky to be able to choose such great classes in subjects I love, like writing and art. Don't these sound so interesting?

• Czech and Central European Literature: Post-War East European Poetry
• American Literature from a European Perspective
• Czech Art and Architecture
• The Beat: Travel Writing
• Modern Dissent in Central Europe: The Art of Defeat

Prof. M. March
To explore the reconstruction of Central and Eastern Europe trough the currency of its poetry, through the desperate honor of its poets. With the war and subsequent occupation of Europe, literature, especially poetry, replaced consensus politics. Poets became the true accountants, and their ledgers contained the unprofitability of the human soul. A reading of the finest poets of the past half-century situates the times and the seminal engagements born to restore independence. The poets were/are personally well-known to the lecturer, with the sad exception of the great Russian poets, Celan and Brecht.
This course is not accepted as one of the four core courses for NYU English majors.