Harry Potter in Niznhy Novograd

Harry Potter opens doors everywhere! Here in Niznhy Novograd, a wonderful walled city on the banks of the Volga River in Vladimir province, Russia.



I am here with fellow museum educator Honee Hess from the Worcester Arts Museum. We have been in Murom, a small Russian city on the Oka River, teaching a four day workshop to regional, art, and history museum staff in the Okalandia Museum Association.





Wonderful group of people to talk with, and a wonderful second trip to Russia with the Fund for Art and Culture of Central and Eastern Europe.



I find that I learn more from these workshops - about how to engage people in museums, about how the regional museums are working successfully to become more visitor-centered and interactive, and about how people across cultures can find ways to learn, and enjoy similarities and differences.

Niznhy has a great pedestrian street near its Kremlin, which hosts lots of terrific locales for bridal photos and children's games. The pedestrian street includes a lovely blend of architecture- art deco, gothic, and new sculptures and brick pavements. Best food I've had in Russia.....but that could be because we had great advisors in the Nikola House hotel.

A few highlights - photos:

Age and beauty

In keeping with the movie theme, I will report that I saw the most recent Harry Potter flick this weekend. Great - action packed and understandable (reading the last tome was equally great, and allowed me to put the Order of the Phoenix in perspective).

It was interesting to see the three main characters in the process of growing up. Painful teen looks and actions...and quite believable. The aging process in the movie parallels my observations about how aging and age impact relationships, especially new ones.

I am admittedly getting up there in age - which means people look at me differently (or at least new colleagues and younger people do). I came to terms a while ago with the reality that I wasn't the youngest person on the team anymore (or at least rarely). But like most other people, I still think of myself as 26 years old and am frequently surprised when someone responds to me on the basis of my age.

It's taking me some time to calm down from a recent miscommunication with a much younger colleague who seemed to be patronizing me in our conversation.....until I realized that this person was intimidated by me (because of my age I think!).

It's funny to go from a family trip, where my parents still treat me as a kid, to a work situation where I am older than the parents of the people I work with. No doubt I'll get used to it, but it's still something as awkward as moving from kid to teen, as the Harry Potter team illustrates.

Photo from practicing being a kid - in the midst of a family game of "therapy". Hope you have as much fun with your family as I do (often) with mine!

Movie madness

I saw a painful movie last night - great acting, but scary. Notes on a Scandal tells a tale of a deluded spinster teacher who ensnares a romantic "wispy" young art teacher in a web of obsession and blackmail, with Judi Dench as the elder school battle axe who narrates through her diary and Kate Blanchett walking into the trap as she juggles her adolescent students and her family. It reminded me of the other painful movie about obsession and delusion - Kathy Bates in Misery. These two movies (and probably the movie Fatal Attraction, which I will probably continue to avoid) epitomize my deepest fears about the word "crazy" - the two characters in question have crafted destructive, dangerous, self-referential world views that impel actions that harm, and never themselves see the problem - the people who get hurt essentially earned it or asked for it. They embody the dark side of "crazy".

What does the word "crazy" really mean? Do all "crazy" characters do harm? Is that the definition - with "wacky" or "eccentric" replacing "crazy" when the unrealistic world views are benign?

Whatever,... I'll keep away from these psychological dramas from now on. Too haunting for me! Back to those chick flicks and Ocean's 13..or better yet the new Harry Potter on IMAX. The concept of crazy in Harry Potter books gives the word a totally different dimension.

And by the way, my birthday was terrific - great party and lots of new music in our newly rearranged house. Go to Eugene Sepulveda's Communitymatters blog July 8th for photos.

Birthdays

So this weekend is my birthday. It's auspicious. On 07-07-07 I turn 56, and I've invited friends and family to celebrate. I am superstitious enough to take this as a good omen and to expect a good year ahead.

Some people go for dining and dancing on their birthday. I seem to always need to do a bit of housecleaning. It's a time to find lost socks, reconcile my checkbook, schedule the doctor and dental visits I've put off too long, as well as spend a bit of time reflecting on the year just passed and fantasizing about the year ahead.

Yesterday I indulged a bit in the fantasizing. I began thinking about all the new cool things I could do or places I could be in the coming year that would let me explore new parts of the world and excercise new talents and interests. Lots of ways to indulge my favorite pastimes.

However somehow, after daydreaming only a short while, I made a mistake and decided to do some reality testing. The internet obliged on a web site that shows how far your current salary goes if you move to your desirable locales. Unfortunately, every locale I was thinking about ended up needing more money than Austin. Check out the cost of living index calculator.

New appreciation for this city, which I have been living in for oh so long. And that's a good thing. Because most recently I have been dissing Austin - downtown is turning into a canyonland of lofts,upscale stores, and trendy destinations. The era of the young cosmopolitan professionals is eclipsing the lifestyle of downhome family-friendly slackers. All the glitter is fun but the charm of Austin is under a bit of attack.

Now that I know Austin is still a "cheap sleep" locale, I'll reconsider my attitude and try to embrace all this transition. And actually, there's alot of good stuff accompanying the growth. Stuff like new transit lines, new neighborhood pride, new arts, and new appreciation of Austin spirit.We'll see how it plays out.

In the meantime, I'll homebase here a bit longer, and find opportunities for cool forays beyond! This year's been great for that - Russia, London, Dublin, Java, Italy, Prague, Denmark, Paris, Boston, Vermont, San Antonio. May it continue!

Summer adventures

Been a lovely summer thus far, full of friends, travels, adventures, and learnings.

May was a "swing shift" month - moving out of University grading and teaching into a 6-week itinerary roaming Central, Eastern, Southern and Northern Europe for work and vacation.

First stop - Prague. I had been given a grant to present a seminar on museum education to regional museums, and the plan was to hold this seminar in Boskovice, a small, lovely town in Moravia in the midst of the "Moravian Karst" - caves and all, and home to a great small museum, a Jewish quarters/synagogue/cemetary, many pubs, and a strange Wild West theme park.







But marketing from abroad is a challenge, and we had to change dates to make sure we could work out details while I was in country - just before George Bush's arrival in Prague as well. So I managed to enjoy a week in Prague, with some side trips to make arrangements, and see museums, friends, and favorite haunts.


Next stop - Italy. Lynn and I had organized a trip with Back Roads to be part of a bicycle tour of Puglia - the Italian Adriatic coastline. I flew to Rome and took a train to Bari to meet up with Lynn. We began our Italian tour in Bari and then proceeded south to Brindisi....with a conjenial group of fellow cyclists and a trail full of olive groves, cherry trees, ruins, trulli architecture, etc.






After a wonderful week on the east coast, we took the train to the west coast of Italy and scaled the mountain passes around the Amalfi Coast - to enjoy a few days in Ravello - home to music, views, and an unusual number of Irish weddings. Great food and wandering again.
A boat took us back to Naples where we boarded an overnight train for a two day whirlwind tour of Paris. What a magical city - the museums, the art, the colors, the foods, the stores, the gardens, the history, the bridges, the churches...tapestries, sculptures, metro, people, bistros, croissants....Classy locale! Our last night was slightly unusual - an evening bike tour of the city, complete with a short ride on a bateau mouche and Texas A&M students as our tourguides and French history experts.


Then back to work - in Copenhagen.
I met colleague Toula Skiadas for a weekend of exploring Copenhagen before we hosted a Psychology without Borders meeting near the cruise ships and main railway station. The weekend allowed me a short trip to the Louisiana Museum north of Copenhagen, and a few great seafood snacks downtown and in Tivoli.



Meetings went well, and then on to my original reason for being in Europe - the US Embassy supported workshop. I took a terrific translator - Hanna Hercherova - with me from Prague, and we enjoyed three days in Boskovice, teaching, wandering, and appreciating small town CZ.

My colleague Ondrej Dostal from the Boskovice Museum (director, band member, fossil expert, and driver) took me to Zlin to catch up with friend Alex, who is working on animation projects and programs in this thriving town, home of Bata shoes. One day there, and back on the bus to Prague for a last evening enjoying Prague rain and sights.


What came from these six weeks of adventure?
-- great memories,
-- some productive work
-- an appreciation for the art of packing (and schlepping)
-- an awareness of how nice it feels to be doing something for the second time, and hard it is to be doing something the first time
-- coffee cravings (withdrawal in process)
-- continued interest in continued work in Central and Eastern Europe.



Apologies for not posting thoughts and photos daily on the blog, but perhaps in the future....

First stop - Java

How does an Austin-focused nonprofiteer move into international waters? Well, it's been more like jumping into a very cold fast moving river and learning how to ride the currents, then wading into the ocean and cautiously taking a low wave. But how was I to know?

I took on the role of Managing Director at Psychology Without Borders expecting to focus on what I know well - infrastructure for a nonprofit enterprise. However, in mid-February it became clear that one of my first projects would be joining a team to explore ways to assist in Java. So I started to get ready for international adventure. My initial tasks:
1) locate my passport. Alas, it was irretrievably somewhere else, so I had to apply for a new one.
2) find a travel guide. Only one guide is up to date on Java in Texas bookstores - luckily my friend Lorel had a guide to share.
3) find some Java contacts. Between meeting the founder of Austin International Rescue (working in Java), running into a journalism professor who just happened to write a book on the Bali bombings, and getting phone numbers from people I ran into in Austin restaurants, I assembled a small source list of people on the ground I could call on for help if needed.
4) learn about Java education, earthquakes, international aid, local ngo's, and colleges. This was the hardest - had no clear paths for such learning. After the fact though, I am much better prepared to do this investigative journalism.

It wasn't helpful that the airline I was booked on from Jakarta to Yogyakarta experienced a crash on the same route I would take just days after this crash was front page US news.

So, armed with a few resources and a spring travel/meeting wardrobe I travelled 35 hours from Austin to Yogyakarta, picking up grad student Edwin Tan in LA, and PWOB staffer Toula Skiadas in Jakarta. We were greeted in Yogyakarta by Edwin's extended Java family, and got to our hotel in early evening, enjoying the chaos of the city and the sights, smells, sounds, and energy of Yogya.



Because our meetings would not begin until Tuesday, Toula and I spent Monday appreciating the area - touring the palace, traveling out to the Buddhist temple in the countryside, enjoying an amazing meal and a ballet performance in the evening.
On Tuesday our Israeli colleague Rony Berger joined us, and we met with his Java contact and our new colleagues at the Gajah Madah University. Good meetings and encouraging signs for developing a research and service project to assist teachers who were working with students in the Bantul area.





On Wednesday, our meetings with Bantul teachers and representatives from the regional educational authority helped us get a better sense of immediate needs. It looked like our plan for assistance was not aligning with the community needs at the current time.


On Thursday, we were able to visit Bantul and see a school project that was almost complete and talk with teachers. Our discussions with our academic partners in the afternoon focused on examining other elements and options. On Friday (all too soon) we had to depart, although Rony was able to stay to explore some new ideas.

Back in Austin, I had barely enough time to reflect on this current, when a new swirl appeared - we had an opportunity to send a PWOB representative to assess options and opportunities in Pakistan. Once more I consulted my newly developing sources about lodgings, travel, circumstances...and we sent Jane Gilbert, from Britain, to Islamabad.

Jane is also back in her home country now, with tales to tell that help us get a better sense of how PWOB can work in far flung locales. Luckily all these tales will be brought to the multi-national, multi-talented Board at a meeting at the end of April.

New start

The rice is boiling in the kitchen, Scarlett our black lab is scratching in the hall, the commuter traffic is crawling past my street and the runners are panting down the hill across from our front door as they do their final practice runs before this weekend's 10K race. It's rush hour in Austin, TX and I am beginning a new blog after completing my two first journals on e-time. (The hazy, misty, picture of stupas and island volcanoes is last week's reality, but read on).

Prague Outpost, my chronicle of the bohemian life as a Fulbright Fellow in the Czech Republic in 2005, provided me an intro to blogging. What fun! - to communicate with friends and family by posting photos and thoughts from my attic apartment near the National Theatre on the Vltava River as fall turned to winter in that magical town. There were nights when the blog was my major antidote to homesickness and mornings when the blog was my megaphone for anecdotes about cross-cultural misunderstandings, great travel tips, and celebrations of small successes.

The blog languished after I returned to the states and got busy with day to day work worlds. I dusted it off in the fall of 2006 to chronicle a visit to Samara, Russia for the Fund for Arts and Culture of Central and Eastern Europe.

When I began a journey out of my Executive Director position at Austin's best-run nonprofit, Greenlights for NonProfit Success, I was persuaded by colleagues to create yet a new blog...focused on the executive transition process. (You probably know, or will find out in that blog, that 2/3 of the people running nonprofits will leave their posts within a few years, so the blog was intended as a cautionary or inspirational tale). This sounded like a good challenge of introspection and education so I hopped on board the train again with From the Greenlights Driver's Seat. Blog #2 gave me a chance to share my story with my LBJ School students at UT Austin and my colleagues in the nonprofit sector. I enticed my family to read it on occasion by posting photos, but Blog #2 had a limited -- albeit an international -- following.

After I had completed my job transition and turned away from Greenlights, it seemed time to turn my back on blogging. At least that's what I thought. After all my blog audience had dropped to about 100 visitors (special thanks to Janie Hayes who would sign on from Malawi every so often -- Janie's blog/website is much fun!) There didn't appear to be much interest in my stories, photos, rants, or queries...and I didn't think I had much to say or share.

Now though, freshly back from an incredible work-related jaunt in Java (for Psychology without Borders) , I am ready to start anew with a longer-term blog. During a lull in the 30 hour flight to Yogyakarta I tried on dozens of blog names....all quite amusing and double entendre-like. But ultimately I've elected to just name it what it is - Deborah on the Move. So welcome to Blog # 3.......and the question ahead is what will it become?

I'll start with stories of Java...on my next posting. But here's a teaser photo - Borobodur, that amazing Buddhist temple outside of Yogya that captures the essence of my experience in Indonesia.