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| 2005 - 2006 TRIP: 500 DAYS ABROAD
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All personal postings and pictures and any other creative output on this site which are the sole creations of the author are copyright (c) Colin Nisbet 2002, copyright (c) Colin Nisbet 2005, copyright (c) Colin Nisbet 2006, copyright (c) Colin Nisbet 2007 |
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| I've been living with family back in the suburb outside of Indianapolis where I spent seven years of my childhood. I've been out of Cleveland for a few weeks now but I'm going to drive back tomorrow early in the morning to pick up something I forgot. Hopefully I'll be able to get out of there as soon as possible after getting there. | | |
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My apartment's living room after I cleared it out last Wednesday, September 30th.
(c) Colin Nisbet 2009
Today is the day I leave Cleveland. Excepting a potential next day return because I won't be able to pack all of my belongings into my Civic, I won't be back for a long while.
Three years
I came here a little over 38 months ago for the first time. The point was to quickly assess the law school, its international law program, the campus, and the surrounding area. The fact that my initial visit was right on the heels of my return from 500 days abroad meant a speedy decision was in order because law school, whether at Case Western Reserve or at the University of Iowa, would not push back its start date.
Three years on, I have a J.D. and am waiting to rejoin the "real adult world" when two things come to pass: I get notification I have passed the NY Bar and I go back into the military as a JAG Officer. Until then, I'm in an undefined area not plotted on any graph. There comes a liberation with that but also an uneasiness.
I still wonder if I made the best of all possible decisions by coming to CWRU. Until I decided to come to law school, I had a world of options at my fingertips. Or else the possibilities seemed endless. All that changed near the top of a hill in Mongolia when I decided that I would not travel beyond day 500, would return to the U.S. and decide in which law program I would enroll. This decision narrowed my options down to two: Case Western Reserve or University of Iowa.
When I returned to the U.S., I based myself out of Bloomington, where I had graduated 19 months before. Cleveland and Iowa City were equidistant from that town - approximately 360 miles - but they might have been worlds apart.
There was something intriguing about separating myself from the Midwest. I had grown up there and it inculcated in me its mores and sensibilities. Not that there is anything intrinsically improper with this area, it's just that I always craved more than what it seemed to be able to offer me.
While Bloomington was a step above everything surrounding it, it was still the Midwest. Iowa City seemed like another Bloomington but in a different state. An oasis in an otherwise seemly Midwestern state. More of the same.
Cleveland seemed like a locale both out of place and time. As far as my American experience went, it was unfamiliar and having just spent the prior near 17 months immersed in such, I couldn't help but crave it. The town was in decay. Its old industry almost nearly abandoned with its crumbling edifices dotting the cityscape, etching itself into everyone's memory. The people were diverse, too, and had a different way about them. Neither Midwestern nor completely un-Midwestern, this city was hard to define. Indianapolis had declined, too, but recovered and regentrified. But it remained largely segregated and not at all diverse - standard Midwest. Cleveland, with all its diversity and promise, remained mired in a sea of uncertainty. It is either a bellweather or a has been. Maybe it's something entirely different but only time will determine that.
In the end, I went with the unfamiliar. A friend I had made while on my long trip abroad told me she believed I was making the more courageous choice. True. But was it more savvy? Only time will determine that. Ultimately, my choice to go to CWRU was more sound because my focus was and remains international law. My law school's star has risen in that arena while Iowa's has plummeted. However, like most students interested in this particular field, my first job out of law school will not be focused on international law. Instead, I will be heading into the U.S. Army to serve as a JAG Officer (military attorney). Like most others joining those ranks, I will largely be handling courts martial in my four years - the initial commitment. Whether international law remains a viable focus depends largely on the job market and more so on me. Where I am in ten years both geographically and professionally will determine whether I continue on in that field. And then there are more personally intimate considerations such as the desire for happiness and starting a family at some point. These matters will either render the choice to come to CWRU moot or will vindicate it.
Where I was ten years today was a much different place. I was deployed to Bosnia with nearly six months remaining in country and nine months total before my active duty commitment came to an end. Law school was but one of many different ideas floating in my head and it certainly was nowhere near the forefront of future possibilities. I was much more interested in archaeology, languages, writing, traveling, and photography in those days. Some things change. Others do not. Still, the next big move was looming in my mind. I figured I'd work as a linguist for at least some time. But then what about getting my B.A.?
A mixture of random happenstance and deliberate selections on my part have gotten me to this point. I have an idea of where I want to be in ten years but that picture remains as foggy as the notion of becoming a lawyer was ten years ago when I was talking to a civilian linguist, who was enrolled in law school but taking a year off to work so she could pay off her debts as she went.
It's not that I'm not content with what I've achieved, where I've traveled, what I've seen, with the friends I've made. It's more about whether the choices I have made in the past three years, more realistically, the past eight years, have been optimizing my potential. Only time can determine that.
These are the things I am thinking about as I'm getting ready to pack up my Civic and head out to Indiana and from there to somewhere else and then somewhere else. | | |
| Look...it's a bird. it's a plane! It's the End!
The end is truly upon us but it's not coming from above. Oblivion's vehicle will neither be in ICBMs nor in viruses spread across the planet. It will be the mundanity that our world is complacently accepting.
Coming off my recent movie binge of nearly thirty movies straight in the past ten days, I have decided to start reading more than the main news articles. While there's always talk about health care (has been since 1992 as far as I can remember) what really caught my eye was this: Jon Gosselin loves his mistress more than his wife.
If you don't know who Jon Gosselin is, he's half of the adult crew of the Jon & Kate Plus 8 reality TV series wherein TLC has been unceremoniously and, arguably, unethically whoring off the husband and wife who, already having two kids, tried for a third and ended up with six more. Think of it as the Brady Bunch for the 21st Century wherein Alice's replacement is portrayed by whoever mommy or daddy is allegedly screwing that week behind their SO's back. LOL.
You may ask me how do I know about this? Am I confused? No. I was forced to watch it. And then I was forced to hear about it. I made my jokes about it, all of which fell on deaf ears. Now I'm going to air my thoughts with you.
Personally, I care more about health care, terrorism, the economy, and Hell's Kitchen than I do about a self-absorbed money-hungry mother and her better half. And if he's not her better half, then ostensibly he's right now the better-off half. Another Hollywood pair over and done with. So what? Even though they couldn't achieve such while together, they certainly have skyrocketed to unprecedented fame since calling it Splitsville. John's traded Kate in for a pretty young thing and Kate's traded John in - and arguably the sanity of her own children and probably their souls as well - for some lucrative business deals. Do I foresee a sequel to Mommy Dearest in about 15 - 20 years? Do I foresee Paris Hilton and Macaulay Culkin times eight in about 10 years?
From watching the TV show, I got goosebumps watching her. There was something very mechanical and selfish about her. I'm glad Jon left her. It's a shame about the kids, though. Really. That's why I hope that it does work out for both Jon and Kate as they go their separate stardom-drenched, self-absorbed ways because those kids, all eight of them, are going to need so much therapy that their therapists will need therapy. | | |
| Today is the most ominous of days because it's the End of Days. And to think, I just put myself through three long years of law school. And coming off of the absolute worst summer of my life, all I have to look forward to is another apocalyptic prophesy just maybe coming true. All that said, my mind isn't stuck on dreadful auguries splattered across blog after blog, webpage after webpage. Even if the objective world everyone else is inhabiting is going on just fine, my own private reality is going straight to hell. You see, I can't get that f-ing song out of my head: Revolution 9.
Number 9.
Number 9.
Number 9.
Number 9.
Why, John? Why? Everyone understands wanting to hook up with the artsy girl. We only sort of understand musicians but that's part of the allure. It's cute when you all start dating freaky people. It stops being cute when you marry them. What the hell, John? No one understands that. What's worse is that you let the bitch hijack your career. You seriously didn't get it when your collaborative effort yielded Revolution 9? The subliminal message in this particular song relays to the listener the story that there may have never been a more whipped man in history.
Number 9.
Number 9.
Number 9.
Number 9.
Yoko Ono. I don't know what to say except that this woman is an apocalyptic event unto herself. And: John, what the hell were you thinking?
Number 9.
Number 9.
Number 9.
Number 9.
A song so terrible that it inspired Charles Manson. Charlie believed that 'number 9' referred to chapter 9 of the Book of Revelation, the chapter concerning the Battle of Armageddon. Yep, Charlie is the guy who carved a swastika into his forehead and carried out the killings of a bunch of people with his so-called family. One terrible collaboration begat another.
Number 9. I'm afraid to close my eyes.
Number 9. The next thing I know is that there's this Welsh rarebit wearing brown underpants chasing after me chanting, 'number nine.'
Oh Yoko.
If the world must rendezvous with oblivion at some point today then let it happen after I watch the new film, 9. Might as well keep with the overall theme. At least as the world must end, so too with it Revolution 9. | | |
| For more photos of Lisbon, follow this link
These photos are from two summers back. I spent the summer interning in Germany and wound up my time abroad with a week in Lisbon. It was one of my favorite places as cities go. The reason being is that while most of Germany and the rest of Western Europe is very modern and drenched in affluence, Portugal remains at the intersection of Western Europe's past and present. And it's capital is not an exception. Old Town Lisbon is dominated by a cosmopolitan atmosphere and wealth. However, this runs parallel with a strong religious sensibility and penury, which only becomes more apparent the further one walks from the Baixa, the opulent center of Old World Lisbon before its colonial star fell from grace over two centuries ago.
Lisbon was perfect for this challenge because as I walked around the Baixa and its adjoning districts, several shops featured very distinct products, some of which were very peculiar and others quite indicative of the city.
There's more I would like to write but I have to cut this post short. I will probably add to this later in the day or tomorrow at the latest. So, stop by again to catch my descriptions and thoughts about the photos.
(c) Colin Nisbet 2008
(c) Colin Nisbet 2008
Portugal has one of the highest levels of religiosity of the European Union nations.
(c) Colin Nisbet 2008
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