February

So now it is the beginning of February. I have been finding it difficult to sit down and update my posts regularly but I am trying to get back into the groove of it. We have been quite busy having to do some paper work. I have had to travel to Prague a few times for official translations and getting some things notarized. I don't want to go far into it. I will just say that it has been a little frustrating and very time consuming.

One of the things we had to do for this paper work was to travel to Vienna. We were very fortunate to have a friend there, Peter Rath. He was extremely generous and it was incredible to spend a few hours with a person from such and important glass family. You can see what his family has been responsible for the past, almost 200 years at www.lobmeyr.at

This trip to Vienna was very nice and comfortable. We took a train from Prague to Vienna. It cost a bit but was well worth the comfort, ease and scenery. Lately we have be relegated to taking the trains when we can. My wife gets motion sickness and my son has become sick a few time on the buses. The drivers here have a lot to work as for driving skills go. Some example would be when following other cars and going around curves. When they follow other cars they like to come within a foot or two of their rears. You can imagine what this causes. A lot of slamming on the brakes and very quick stops resulting in everyone in the bus being jerked around. This is not only the bus drivers though. It seems to the style of driving here. The next situation of going around a corner is also interesting to say the least. Usually it is common to slow down as you approach a curve and speed up as you round and complete the curve. However I have witnessed the exact opposite almost 100% of the time, even amongst other drivers. So the scenario is this. As you approach the curve speed up very quickly then as you complete the curve slam on the brakes. I am not sure what the rational is but we have not been the only ones susceptible to this. We have been on the bus as other children have gotten sick as well.

Enough of my digression. What else is going on?

 

We are preparing for a conference for Fulbright in Velke Bilovice, south of Brno in Moravia.(Unfortunately I cannot add the appropriate marks for the pronunciation.) We will be meeting with current and new Fulbrighters from The Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic. We anticipate this to be a very exciting time. It usually is with these fellow Fulbrighters. It is wonderful to share time with other professionals, scholars and educators from other disciplines. One event I am looking forward to is a wine tasting at the Templar Knight's Wine Cellars. You can see more about it at www.vitejte.cz/objekt.php?oid=5899&j=en

Among the other things I have been doing, I have also been working on some new work. If you know what I was doing before you will see a big change. Either way I hope that you appreciate what I am doing. I have been doing some reading about geometry and how beauty is assessed from the points of view of different professionals in varying fields. One is talking about different states of consciousness. One of which is the collective consciousness that goes back thousands of years. He is talking about forms that we use today as well as the past but have their roots in the distant past. This is why people of multiple cultures seem to be drawn to the same or similar shapes and forms. I have been finding inspiration in these thoughts as well as what I am seeing in the old architecture here. In addition, I am trying to utilize different surfaces for directing light and the viewer.