A Hapsburg Retreat

 I returned back home to Boston without any concrete or major plans, without any job or internship, and without any real prospects. Usually, I’m not one to live spontaneously, so I was a little worried that my summer could be pretty unproductive and also excited to see if I could handle making a lackluster summer into something extremely valuable. So instinctively, I assigned myself a small list of objectives to complete under the title “Man-up”. To be honest, I am missing many of the basic skills needed to survive alone: I literally cannot cook a single dish nor do I have the capability of repairing any problems with the house, and I’m a pretty small guy, so I thought if I didn’t develop some talents of a functioning human being I could at least look like I could. These seem like easy problems to fix, however I didn’t fully complete all my goals. I am still a tiny twenty year old who cannot cook but who CAN fix up a house. I will not go into much detail with my little home-ec stint, but let’s just say if my life depended on flipping an omelet I would be in some serious trouble.

In the midst of my “man-up” agenda, one of the senior fellows posted an article about the “busy trap” (http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/30/the-busy-trap/), which really helped me to appreciate and understand the benefits of not always going 110 miles an hour all the time and taking some time off to just unwind, clear my head, and relieve some of the stress from the past school year. So I ended up reading a lot, roaming downtown Boston exploring and finding hidden or overlooked gems of the city, and spending time just sitting on the beach looking out on the ocean like some cliché scene from a movie. However, being a hermit can only last so long.

The second half of my summer was European-ized. I’ve been really lucky to have a family that places a lot of importance on travel, and this summer marked a trip around the heart of Hapsburg Europe…Vienna, Budapest, (a drive through Bratislava), and Prague. Aside from the smorgasbord historical sites, those cities may have been the most delicious places on earth. But all 3 cities have developed differently in the past century, even having been united for 400 years throughout history. Vienna is still strongly tied with the proud Austro-Hungarian Empire. Budapest was less ornate, but maintained the feeling of an extremely old city. Most of the buildings around the city were 18^th century or older. The Czech capital had picturesque scenes around every turn, but extremely difficult to navigate. It was really interesting to see how after the fall of the Hapsburgs, each city developed a unique culture all based on a similar history.

In the past two weeks, my family has been hosting a German girl from the town where my father grew up (I learned most of my handyman skills from fixing the room she’s been staying in) and we hosted one of my friends from Serbia for a few days. It has been really amazing and refreshing to get to know and get reacquainted with my friends from abroad.

While I may have not met all of the goals that I set for myself, the “freestyle” method for this summer wasn’t as scary as I thought. It allowed me to have the flexibility to do a small retreat, to host a couple of Europeans, and to go on a trip to Europe…although I still would like to know how to feed myself before I take the mammoth step of living alone!