Let your memory be your travel bag

Nottinghill Carnival 2009

2009-08-30T13:06:00.000-07:00

We went to the Nottingham Carnival on the family day (Sunday, Aug 30) with one of my good friends from work, Maryam.

The carnival was overwhelming with lots and lots of people. We got a bit of west Indian food and walked around the area to find a sound system with good music. Along the way, we had to find a toilet and waited for over 30 minutes in line to pay a few pounds to use someone's bathroom in their house!

It was a cool experience with some good dancing but a long day with too much to look at!

Something Fishy in London

2009-08-22T11:17:00.000-07:00

Early Saturday morning, Hyeran dragged us out of bed at 6 AM to get the freshest catch at Billingsgate Fish Market in London. She was in search of a couple of good fillets of Dover Sole for a homework assignment from culinary school. On our way we found a bag full of very fresh shrimp and the tastiest monk fish ever!

Getting to Billingsgate Market, we took a bus from Vauxhall (our new flat) to Liverpool street and another to Canary Wharf. This part of town is really interesting because we walked past the five or six biggest banks in the world with huge glass towers down around the bridge to the fish market. It sits in the shadow of the banking giants. The contrast is striking-- not only in architecture but in social and economic class--fish mongers, chefs, service staff working just down the road from the CEO's of our financial institutions.

By the time we had picked out our catch of the day, it was almost 8am and we headed home via the same bus route but this time with a smell (but fresh!) bag of fish.

Hyeran has found her Dover Sole!

Giant King Prawn/ shrimp

Crabs

Red Snapper

Eels in a bag...

Negotiating for a good price for monk fish

Move to London

2009-08-15T08:49:00.000-07:00

We moved to London in August to a beautiful flat in Vauxhall (south side of London). We are living with another couple-- Mel and Hyeran- who are also Americans. Mel is studying at LSE and Hyeran just graduated from chef school! One of the many reasons we had to find a place with a nice kitchen.

Our flat overlooks the Thames River and is just down the way from the London Eye and across the river from Big Ben. It is an amazing location and we have a beautiful sunset almost every night.

Hyeran and Mel

The Kitchen

Dining room

Living Room with door to balcony

Balcony

View from the balcony

Weekend in Amsterdam

2009-05-25T16:29:00.000-07:00

Monica and I spent the weekend in Amsterdam (May 22-24). I went to a conference for work the following week and got a free trip to the Netherlands! Here are the pictures...

Most Mira Youth Festival in Bosnia

2009-05-21T16:40:00.000-07:00

Check out our photos from the festival:

Paris for New Years

2009-01-19T16:24:00.000-08:00

Happy New Years from Paris!!!

Guy Fawkes Day

2009-01-09T08:08:00.000-08:00

Guy Fawkes Day is celebrated on November 5th in England by holding bonfires all across the country. The celebrations usually burn an effigy of Fawkes (a wooden man), have a huge fire, and set off fireworks.

Guy Fawkes is the infamous Brit who in attempted to blow up the British House of Parliment using barrells and barrells of gunpowder. He was stopped, caught and hanged but now lives on every year on Guy Fawkes Day as an excuse to tramp around outside in the cold and rain to see a HUGE fire and a some fireworks.

Monica and I went to the bonfire in Oxford on the Saturday after November 5th. I apologize for the late posting of pictures.

Enjoy!

Monica's Rowing Adventures

2008-11-09T04:09:00.001-08:00

Matriculation at Oxford

2008-11-08T03:20:00.000-08:00

Monica matriculated at Oxford a few weeks ago. Here was her reaction:

"It was very special. The whole ceremony lasted 15 minutes and they spoke in Latin. No one in the room knew what they were saying."

UPDATE: Our New Home in the UK

2008-10-26T06:38:00.001-07:00

A lot has happened since my last post-- I graduated from MSU, moved to Washington, D.C. for an internship at Amnesty International, got married to my wonderful wife, Monica Mukerjee, moved to the UK, and am now employed in London.

Wow- I guess that qualifies as a lot.

Monica and I have been settling into our flat in Oxford and adjusting to life in the UK. Our immediate reactions to British people and UK culture, in general, were that it is not that different from the U.S. Yes, everyone have interesting accents. Yes, they drive on the 'wrong' side of the street but we really do have more in common than we originally thought. I guess, from my travels, each place has had a distinct feel which sets it markedly apart from other places I've been. When we stepped off the plane at Heathrow and our first few hours in London, it felt like other big cities I've been to in the U.S.

Maybe this is because industrial metropolises have standard things in common (i.e. subways, sidewalks, street signs). Some scholars point to this as a growing 'business civilization.' Or maybe once a city gets to a certain size it will have an international, multicultural population with certain aspects in common with one another. Or maybe this is our post-modern civilization beginning to emerge within the urban centers in the world. (Let's hope for the latter.)

Although British culture is very similar to American culture, it is the little things that will get you. First off, I'm surprised I survived the first week in Oxford. Even though the city has helpfully stenciled "LOOK RIGHT" and "LOOK LEFT" on pedestrian crosswalks, I step out to see a small European car buzzing toward me. Monica has pulled me back to the safe sidewalk numerous times just as an Oxfordian bicycle goes zooming by us. Last week, Eric (one of our American friends living in Oxford and a spouse of another Marshall scholar) and I were quickly crossing the street when a double decker bus blared its horn at us and we scurried out of its way just in time.

The second little difference is in the Queen's English. I know, I know-- I am not one to be a stickler for spelling but my attempts at the job search have taught me to replace a few words with the British equivalent. Most popular in my CV and personal statements were organization/organisation, program/programme, and honors/honours. Some that didn't appear in my personal statement are mom/mum, airplane/aeroplane, goodbye/cheers, boogeyman/bogeyman, and arse/ass. I think one of the reasons my applications got interviews was because I successfully integrated the Queen's spellings (and not the latter).

The third difference is tea. Brits know how to steep a mean cup of tea, bit it Earl Grey, English Breakfast, Assam, or green tea. I, as an American, thought my beverage of choice was strong, black coffee. Early in the morning, I enjoy the crisp, shockingly strong taste and the hot liquid to wake myself up. A few weeks ago, I caught a cold and lost my voice and attempted to coax my voice back to health with cups and cups of tea. After about a week, I was hooked and now I have become accustomed to nearly five cups of tea a day--which sneaks up on you. I was mistaken that tea is harmless and has no caffeine and is really more like water than anything else. Tea does have caffeine and with five cups a day you hit the 'loo' quite a bit.

Besides these little things, life in Oxford has been great. We have explored some of the hallowed halls of Oxford's oldest colleges and even found a quad that was filmed in one of the Harry Potter films!

Next mission: find the Quidditch Pitch.

More Pictures:

Linacre is Monica's college at Oxford. Oxford is organized into colleges for students to live and eat together but are not related to their subject or field of study.

This is the main building of Linacre College.

Riding in one of these boats is a classic Oxford experience called 'punting'
(but we haven't done it yet!)

Our friends, Marzyeh and Steve

Thesis Defense

2008-04-18T11:02:00.000-07:00

After a year and a half working on this research project, I finally have a completed draft of my thesis. I wrote my Circumnavigators paper in the fall on each country and community I visited. In this paper, I have expanded the theory section to include sections on both civil society theory and civil society and Islam; I also expanded my comparisons and conclusions and added a part on global civil society. I will be defending my thesis on April 24th at 5pm (Case Hall, rm #336).

Feel free to download the PDF file and let me know what you think. You can either email me comments, questions, or suggestions or save them for defense! I hope those of you who have followed my travels or helped me with my research will be able to read some or parts of my thesis and come to my defense.

http://nickmicinski.googlepages.com/micinskithesis1.pdf

Conference Presentations

2008-04-13T20:16:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, April 5th, I presented this poster at the Midwest Political Science Association in Chicago. I was able to speak with several other conference goers about their research and they gave me input into my research.

Monika and I had a beautiful day to explore the city. We also met up with Jason Ardanowski (a former Madison grad) for lunch and Chicago style pizza. It was very good.

On Friday, April 11th, I made an oral presentation of my research at the University Undergraduate Research and Arts Forum (UURAF). I prepared this powerpoint presentation and answered several interesting questions afterwards about connecting my research with literature on African Diaspora and networks. I found out a few days later that I received first prize for my presentation!

Please look at both my poster and my powerpoint presentation and leave questions or comments for me to answer.

Marquette presentation at NMU

Advertisement outside Uncle Bill's store

Poster at MPSA Conference in Chicago

Presentation at the Circumnavigators Club in October

Circumnavigation make MSU front page!

2008-03-15T10:26:00.000-07:00

MSU has caught on to my research, travel, and adventures plastered me on top of the main MSU webpage!

Exciting stuff-- I think they really like my t-shirt.

Check out the article.

Signs...of the World

2007-11-17T09:02:00.000-08:00

After an entertaining week in Finland with my excessively funny/goofy sister, I began documenting the signs of the world-- some are familiar, some are instructive, others are indecipherable. Enjoy!

"Follow me," Norway

"Oh!," Finland

"Oh, my!," Finland

"Walk carefully in circles," Finland

"Doggy box," Finland

"100 Meter Dash," Russia

"Nyet..." Russia

"Don't...walk off buildings"

"Don't...drink while leaning on a lamppost"

"Don't...cross-country ski on the grass"

"Don't...miss the trash can by a few inches"

"No speedos."

"Caution!," Russia

"No anchoring on the highway," Russia

"Put something where?" Dubai

"I'd like a table near the creek," Dubai

**

"No sitting on grass. No playing on grass. No climbing trees with jacksaws," Dubai
**Note violators in bottom right corner.

"Our flights cover the entire Middle East...minus one," Dubai

"Please..." Dubai

Sticker on the back of an auto-rickshaw:

"Try the potato salad," India*
*See Delhi and Mussourie posts.

"No marching" or "No crossing the line," Singapore

Graffiti...of the World

2007-11-16T08:38:00.001-08:00

Street art can come in many different forms. Here are just a few...

São Paulo, Brazil

São Paulo, Brazil-
These stickers were custom made by a group of young Brazilian (about 10-15 years old). They were sticking them on all the signs and posts around town. I attempted to talk with this group near the MASP.

Reykjavik, Iceland

Bergen, Norway

Bergen, Norway

Kazan, Tatarstan, Russia

Mussouree, India

McDonald's...of the World

2007-11-15T08:20:00.000-08:00

During my trip I took pictures for a series of photo collections that I'm calling "...of the World." These are pictures of some of the McDonald's I saw during my travels. Although I tend to side with individuals against the 'McDonaldization' of the world, I will admit to appreciating a reliably clean bathroom every once and a while.

São Paulo, Brazil

Bergen, Norway

St. Petersburg, Russia

Kazan, Tatarstan, Russia

Moscow, Russia-
The largest McDonald's in the world with about 15 cash registers, tons of seating, and free wireless internet.

Singapore

India Video Post

2007-09-28T20:26:00.000-07:00

Indian Dancing:

This is from a performance at Kalakshetra Academy, Chennai, India. The dance is done in the Bharatanatyam style which originated here in the south of India.

Indian Dancing 2:

This is another part of the performance. The dancers and the school were incredible to visit and welcomed us to their campus.

Indian Food

2007-09-27T21:12:00.001-07:00

This food was amazing and I couldn't get enough of it. Sushweta cook most of the meals just for us!

Thumbs up: Coke times 10

Diet water?

Singapore

2007-09-27T19:28:00.001-07:00

I realized that I hadn't posted my Singapore pictures yet. Here are the good ones.

While I was in Singapore for only a few days, I was there during National Day. National day marks Singapore's independence on August 9th and there was a big celebration downtown. I tried to get into the thick of it but most of the streets were packed with people. At one point a bridge got shut down because so many people where crammed on to it that no one could move. I watched the festivities from one side of a river/bay.

The next day (August 10th) I flew back to the U.S. with a layover in Hong Kong and Chicago.

Check out more pictures below.

Crowded streets

The National Day Parade

Overcrowded bridge

Fireworks at night

Giant balloon jellyfish

More jellyfish

Delhi and Mussoorie, India

2007-09-26T10:50:00.000-07:00

I spent around five days in Delhi after my time in Chennai. My plan was to take a flight in the morning and meet Monika and her family in Delhi in the afternoon. They had arranged night flights and my flight was at 7:30am. I waited for my driver, who was 45 minutes late, until Monika's father’s brother, Gautam, told me to jump the fence and jump into the zooming driver's car.

At the airport, I discovered that my airline had been bought out and would not honor my ticket. If I wanted on the flight, I needed to buy a new ticket and then get reimbursed by my travel agent. So, I waited in line behind another angry customer who monopolized the sales counter until after the gate closed. I went back to the check-in counter, again, and handed my ticket to a different man. He typed in a few numbers, made a call, printed out a ticket, and grabbed my hand. He said, “Quickly, we’ve got to catch your plane.”

We ran through the Delhi airport (the VIP security lane, of course) and up the escalators. Finally, we approached the gate and the attendant told me, “Please don’t run, sir. We’ve been holding the plane for you.” As I walked down the aisle, a plane of eyes followed me to my seat. I have never felt my white privilege more before in my life. It is hard to imagine that a plane full of Indian businessmen could be held fifteen minutes because of an American college student running late, but white, American privilege is everywhere. I experienced it in Russia when my translator expressed disbelief because we were meeting with high-level people without appointments or credentials. I experienced it in Dubai with taxi drivers and in Singapore on the subway. I enjoy these privileges in the U.S. as well, but outside of the U.S. it is more accentuated and, to me, more troubling.

After arriving in Delhi, I made my way to the hotel and ate a big lunch. Almost immediately, I went back to my room and was sick, really sick, for the rest of the night. I had made it almost two weeks without getting sick from Indian food. In fact, I was gorging myself every night on the wonderful food until this meal. From then on, I ate more cautiously and will much less of an appetite. Bad luck, though, because I love Indian food and could have spent the rest of my time there eating and eating.

One day I was so sick I couldn’t get out of bed, so I had to cancel my interviews for the day. Unfortunately, I only had a few days in Delhi and thus did not get nearly as many interviews as Muslim organizations in Delhi deserve. The groups in Delhi were very impressive in number and in their work. The groups were increasingly intellectual and one of my interviews was with a man who is both a doctor at a research center and the General Secretary of a very active organization.

After Delhi, we went north to Mussoorie by jeep. It was about 8 or 10 hours climbing up to the foothills of the Himalayas. They ride up was both beautiful and nauseating because of my carsickness. The winding road (yes, long too…) felt like a roller coaster but we were riding in a car that had the ability to pass and take the curves extra hard. Mussoorie is a city perched on the side of the mountain. It is about five or six big switchbacks of thick city, clinging to the hillside, hoping the rain won’t was it away. And, oh, did it rain.

While we were in Mussoorie, BBC was reporting that the UN had declared this year’s monsoon to be the worst flooding in living memory. Because we were at the top of the hills, we didn’t get any flooding—it just ran past us—but in lower parts of India (closer to Calcutta) flooding was very bad. Gorky, Monika’s cousin who just finished college in Indiana and will be starting grad school this fall in D.C., said that when he went to Delhi while we were in the mountains, there was water shooting up on both sides of the car. Fortunately, he made it back up the mountain and we didn’t come down until the flooding had receded a bit.

Gautam and Sushweta, Monika’s uncle and aunt, were so kind to me my entire stay in India. We were able to talk several times about my research and I felt like I had several deep break-throughs there. Gautam and Sushweta run a non-profit called The India Foundation that works to preserve traditional Indian performing arts. They supply scholarships for young artists to continue studying, pensions for retired artists, and run study abroad programs for international students to both share and pay for the rest of their organization. What they have done is incredible and I was able to sit in on several lectures given by leading professionals in India. Their program goes through every aspect of India from economy to government to all the Indian performing arts to the environment and each lecture is presented by their leading experts.

You will also see in my next post what a wonderful cook Sushweta is… I was in heaven once my stomach finally settled down.

Photos:

We were taken to an amazing restaurant in Delhi and given a shot cooking lesson!

A small market I found my first day in Delhi before my stomach revolted on me.

Mussoorie (pronounce: "Moo-soo-ree")

Rickshaw in the fog

Monika gazing at the mountains

The Himalayan Mountains

Reading the final Harry Potter book together...

Sushweta cooking a wonderful meal!

The house in Mussoorie

Monika trying to check her email from the foothills of the Himalayas (made possible by a cellphone card)

Gorky and Shelby (Gorky's girlfriend from Colorado)

In Mussoorie

Sweet shop

Village boys trying to sell us greeting cards

Pushad's General Store, literally everything

'Round the World Video Posts

2007-08-17T18:17:00.001-07:00

I have been uploading many video clips from my trip on to Youtube.com. To see them, you don't need to register for Youtube but you will need a fairly fast internet connection.

I have placed the video blogs in their chronological order but you can find them by following these links:

Russian Video Post

Finland Video Post

Circumnavigation Complete!

2007-08-12T18:23:00.000-07:00

On August 10th, 2007, at 10pm I landed in Detroit Metro Airport, completing my circumnavigation of the world. Groggy, jetlagged, and tired from the 18 hours of flying (not including layovers), I gathered my bags and met my girlfriend, Monika, and the next day the rest of my family. It is good to be home and wonderful to have completed my voyage. My research is not quite complete-- I still must arrange interviews in Dearborn, Michigan, and then begin to sort through and analyze all of the information I collected.

Over the next few days I will be updating my blog on the places I have missed and the topics I did not cover. I also hope to post several video clips now that I have a very quick internet connection.

Thank you to everyone who helped and supported me on my adventures this summer. Thank you to the Circumnavigators Club for making it all possible. Thank you to the many organizations and interviewees who welcomed me to their communities. Thank you to my family, friends, and translators who showed me around their beautiful countries. Thank you to my professors and adviser who have continuously guided and pushed me. And thank you to my girlfriend and my family in Michigan for understanding when I miss phone calls, when leave weeks of gaps in between blogs, and when decided to take on the small project of traveling around the world.

My pack before:

And after:

(Note the extra bag and bulging seams)

**Note: The title of this post was previously "Mission Complete" but I have revised it after one of my readers wisely pointed out that my mission is not over by simply circumnavigating the world. Not only do I have more interviews and much writing to do on my project, I also hope to continue my goals of further understanding, greater inclusion, more collaboration long after my paper and thesis are complete. Some may see similarities to my post's former title and our President's "Mission Accomplished" banner, but I have revised my title in an attempt to learn from mistakes.

Chennai, India

2007-08-02T14:19:00.000-07:00

Pictures now, blog to come...

A Day (or two) in Dubai

2007-08-01T15:06:00.000-07:00

Pictures for now, blog to come...

Russian Video Post

2007-07-28T19:53:00.000-07:00

Here are a few glimpses of Russia through the few video clips I took while traveling.

Fountains of St. Petersburg:

Russian Wedding Celebration:

The couple just toasted to their happiness (I think that's what they toast to...) and then broke their glasses on the pier. This was just one of about ten couples near the water, each breaking their glasses in turn.

Georgian Food:

This is my bubbling dish at a Georgian restaurant in St. Petersburg. It was so spicy (hot spicy!) and I ate it with some amazing cheese bread.

Russian Rapping:

We walked up on a few rappers performing in the street. I think they were entertaining as advertisement for a cell phone company.

Russian Break Dancing:

In addition to the rappers, the cell phone company also had these awesome break dancers.