Nashville to Norway

(Part Three of Five in my Carmen Sandiego series is packed tight, with a better record than Part Two)

She go from Nashville to Norway, Bonaire to Zimbabwe,

Chicago to Czechoslovakia and back!

Nashville = no

Just through the airport. And that never counts. And I might even be confusing it with Memphis, as I did when I originally started writing this post.

Norway = yes

Location background: One of the most interesting things about Norway is that it isn’t in the European Union. They’re simply too rich from oil to bother with such shenanigans.

Personal background: For months and months, I felt tormented by the fact that the host and creator of Don’t Worry About The Government, the political podcast that I’m on, had been to Norway and I hadn’t. He barely travels; I do it constantly. And yet there was something on his list that wasn’t on mine. It became an obsession.

Highlights:

1. This picture I took of a caterpillar in Bergen.
2. When the conductor on the train led me to another car to plug my laptop in on the train.
3. Getting a fancy meal cooked by my smiley, warm host.

Lowlights: Every time I had to spend money in this exorbitantly expensive country.

Bonaire = no

It’s a Dutch-owned island in the Caribbean that no one has heard of outside of this song. Why the hell would I have been there?

Zimbabwe = no

The hope is to hit it on my tentative Fall 2011 Africa trip, with some help from Manu, the Zimbabwean that we had on DWATG a few episodes back.

Chicago = yes

Chicago was an odd place to me, feeling like it was trapped in the 1970’s or 1980’s. Prices seemed unnaturally low.

Highlights:

1. It’s my favorite downtown in the world.
2. Meeting Ethan Cheng, who got me onto a hit political podcast.

Lowlights: Having to deal with the indignity of being told that Chicago-style deep dish should be referred to as ‘pizza’.

Czechoslovakia = no, but Czech Republic and Slovakia = yes

Having dissolved in 1993, I wasn’t given the chance to visit it as a united country, but I was in Prague in 2004 and Bratislava in 2010.

Prague Highlights: Along with Berlin, the only place I stayed a week in, due to having a hang-out group from the hostel. The biggest event was when we went to a bar, I met a girl, we danced (read: grinded), all of us left the bar and the girl lost all of the English she had been speaking to me earlier, then we lost everyone else, and I was contending with her drunken confusion as she moaned “Miláčku, Miláááááááčku!” (a Czech term of endearment), ignoring my pleas for her to remember my native language as I tried to find our respective friends within the snow and ice.

Prague Lowlights: Having people literally walk across the sidewalk, just to bump into me.

Bratislava Highlights: Getting a successful hitch from Vienna Airport directly to my host’s place in Bratislava, by Slovak Jews that told me their personal story from the end of Communism.

Bratislava Lowlights: Realizing why everyone said not to stay in Bratislava for more than a day, as there just is nothing in the city other than the nice people that I met.

All pictures can be found at http://flickr.com/roniweiss

S2: Hangin’ with Joe Geni

Roni and Joe go to 30 Rock to try to watch SNL live. (Part Two of the NYC April 2010 series.

Listen to the Decade Recap Episode of DWATG

Check out the latest episode, #61: Worst Decade Ever (also on iTunes).

I don’t usually pimp out DWATG, as it’s one of my running projects.  That being said, this is a special episode.  The decade-end episode gives you the chance to find out Roni’s picks for:

• Most important and most embarrassing personal moments of the past decade
• Best/worst movie
• Best scandal
• Worst person
• Most important moment
• Most influential person
• And more

And, of course, political commentary from the week.

Check it out, it’s a good episode all around.  Even if you’re not politically-inclined, this episode will inch you into our world.

New Roni On Location and Project Updates

About a week late, which coincidentally corresponds to how long I’ve been busy with barely any time to do anything outside of camp.

You can find it on iTunes and at onlocation.roniweiss.com.  As always, it’s relatively offensive, which is why ROL has an ‘Explicit’ tag on iTunes.

As for other projects:

DWATG:  Recorded tonight (missed being on last week’s episode due to the arrival of the 8-day Easter session kids).  I imagine you’ll find it on iTunes and the DWATG page tomorrow.

Once Upon A Podcast:  2/3 episodes are recorded.  The last will hopefully be done sooner than later.

Untitled Subculture Podcast:  I have resigned myself to it being on hold until I have a few hours to actually sort out some pre-planning stuff.

As for the blog, I’m sure I could cobble some stuff together, once I get some energy back.  I’ve had a cold, which hasn’t helped.  We are going back to normal Spring sessions which I think will allow for things to be smoother and give me more time (comparatively).  The swine flu stuff is interesting me.  And I can always go a round or two on politics.  Expect at least one solid post this week on current events.  Spank me if you don’t get it.