Since our project is all about interviewing and exploring what different people's opinions and experiences with connection and vulnerability are, we've had to do a lot of connecting and sharing of ideas and our own personal experiences every day. It's been both incredibly exciting and tiring, and has led us to meet a lot of interesting people and explore a lot of interesting places.
We keep connecting with lots of people who openly and warmly invite us to come along on adventures, whether those be birthday parties, lunches, coffees, or ... day trips to Budapest?!
Yup, that's right! Remember those friends I mentioned having breakfast-for-dinner with the other day? Well, one of them was celebrating his birthday and invited us to come along to Budapest. It was a wonderful day full of road-trip games, Hungarian (debatably Slovak) food, and a whole lot of minarets. We also did a good chunk of walking and talking, so by the end of the day I fell into bed and slept for something around 10 hours. Kristen and I got to talk about a lot of the differences and similarities she's perceived since coming to Europe (in comparison with the States), as well as the differences between cities and countries within Europe. We also had the chance to hear what Lenka, Casey, and Adam have observed about Viennese and Austrian relationships since coming to live in Vienna.
Budapest was lots of fun and stunningly beautiful. Yet I've realized that I can be a very poor tourist. The beauty and history can be overstimulating, in a way. Constantly being bombarded with a different language (which I don't understand in the slightest) and new sights and sounds is both overwhelming, exciting, and tiring. That, combined with the dripping afternoon heat, led to a melting Patty who was really excited to return to Austria, where I can communicate with waiters and students and grocery store attendants and new friends. It's made me think about the ability to be a good traveller, and how one should be a good traveller. Is being a tourist really effective in learning about anything? Or do all the beautiful sites mush together in one similar sight?
It's so wonderful to have Kristen along to talk about everything we're both processing and learning from all the different conversations and experiences we're having. All of our discussions push us towards a greater understanding (and even more questions) about the nature of relationships. We're discovering a lot about the many things that are similar about the desire to connect with each other in different countries and between people from different backgrounds and are in a way "gathering" more and more people who have expressed an interest in being in the film!
So much going on, but hope this quick update suffices for you following allowing with our journey,
Patty
No comments:
Post a Comment