Alright, I know that two posts in a row without pictures may be sort of dull, but I wanted to write about this before I forgot the details. 

I am in Utrecht, the Netherlands right now, which is a small city about 30 min outside of Amsterdam. Last night we ventured to the outskirts of Amsterdam where we had the fantastic opportunity of meeting with the organization "Women on Waves." I am not sure if I can do them justice in a brief explaination so here is a bit from their website: 

Every 8 minutes somewhere in the world a woman dies needless as a result of illegal, unsafe abortion. In response to this violation of womens human rights and medical need, Women on Waves sails to countries where abortion is illegal. This is done at the invitation of local women's organizations. With the use of a ship, early medical abortions can be provided safely, professionally and legally. Women on Waves aims to prevent unsafe abortions and empower women to exercise their human rights to physical and mental autonomy, by combining free healthcare services and sexual education with advocacy.From the Women on Waves website

So basically, they wanted to think of a creative way to make abortions avaliable to women in countries where abortion is illegal, so they came up with the Abortion Boat. They built a gynecological office in a Pod-like storage unit, which they move onto rented boats. They then sail to countries lacking abortion access, pick up women at shore, and sail out to international waters (about 12 mi out) and perform the abortion. The idea is that since the boat is registered in the Netherlands, Dutch law applies in international waters. 

Not only is their goal to give abortions to women who need them, but it is also to bring public attention to the issue and they usually campaign in places where a local org has asked them to come rile up the issue. In Portugal, only 3 years after Women on Waves campaign, abortion was fully legalized. 

The second aspect of their work is under a different title: Women on Web. Here they provide information about how to obtain Misoprostol, which is available in pharmacies for stomach ulcers, but also starts contractions and can be used to have a safe at-home abortion. For women who have no way of accessing the pill, they have an online questionnaire that resembles the questions asked in a clinic and then a doctor actually prescribes the pill and it is sent to women's homes. 


They also brought up some really interesting statistics, including the fact that more women die from regular child birth than abortions by a large margin and the number of abortions DO NOT go down where abortion is illegal. It was definitely the most inspiring lecture I have heard from an organization yet. They have come up with such unbelievably creative ways to give women access to abortions.


Other than abortions, I am LOVING the Netherlands! Utrecht is much smaller than Berlin and a much easier place to feel comfortable in for such a short period of time. There are also bikes EVERYWHERE (there's even a youtube video about it), which is inevitably comforting for me. It also helps that the Dutch speak perfect English. I am, of course, grateful for the chance to experience a lot of cultural differences, but with moving around all the time it is really nice (and I think well deserved) to be in a place that feels so similar to home--except of course much more beautiful. 


We also have the majority of our lectures here from professors in the University of Utrecht's Gender Studies dept, which is one of the best in Europe, so we are getting to meet some really amazing people and hear incredibly interesting and engaging lectures. 


The only other news I have is that I wrote a piece for a magazine about the Duke Fuck List. Check out the rest of the website too, they are doing some really cool and important work.

For anyone interested, here are the links to my photo albums: Granada, Krakow, and Prague.



I have been in Berlin for over 3 weeks now; what a luxury it is to stay in one place for more than 2 weeks! Berlin is a really thriving and diverse city with incredibly fascinating people and cool things happening all over all the time. It is a nice change from Prague where my neck got stiff from looking up at the old and beautiful buildings all time, but here the beauty is in the eclectic mix of people on the street.

In Berlin I am staying with our program site coordinator who is a Turkish woman who moved to Berlin in 1983 and just happens to be a world renown DJ. On top of that, my program director Iveta explained that Berlin is the queer center of the world and Ipek is the center of that and after 2 1/2 weeks with her I have no trouble believing it. Not only can I not walk on the street with her without someone waving or saying hi, but she is clearly quite the Ladies Lady. Directly after describing herself as newly single, she mentioned having around 3 lovers at the moment. I was "lucky" enough to walk through the main room on my way out while she was starring deeply into the eyes of one of them for at least the three minutes is took me to collect all my stuff, put on my shoes, and leave--quickly! 


The first weekend I was in Berlin, my group got the opportunity to participate in a Queer Theory conference at Humboldt University. Queer theory tends to cover a lot of issues, and I don't always love engaging with some of the theories that are a little closer to outer space than earth (for example, one of the key notes was about the eroticization of rocks i.e. rock sex? I don't know I didn't really get it). BUT despite the fact that I am still unsure whether or not I heard I lecture about rock sex, there were some really interesting lectures given by some of the biggest names in the field. 


The first full week after the conference we had a particularly interesting lecture. We got the opportunity to meet with a sex worker at her apartment. She did not fit the stereotypical image of a sex worker at all. She began working at a heterosexual sex worker at 28 after completing her Masters degree in education. During the next twenty years, she continued working and earned her PhD. Now, she is working as a lesbian escort/lover/sex worker and is also an educator, advocate--it sounds like she attends a lot of national and international conferences on sex work--and considers herself a bona fide "sexpert." It was very interesting to be confronted with such a positive view of sex work. 


In pretty stark contrast to that lecture, the second week we had all of our lectures at Humboldt University from professors in the Gender Studies department there. Fun Fact: Humboldt alum include Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels and Albert Einstein. 

Tomorrow we leave for Utrecht, the Netherlands. I will be sad to leave Berlin (and have to pack again), but it is nice to have something new to look forward to. 


I will put up some Berlin pictures soon. I hope the Cleveland family had a good Fall Hike. I hear my dad sang...sorry about that :)

Prague Blague!

--I added some pictures of Krakow to the posts below, in case anyone is interested in checking them out--

I am not getting much better at doing the shorter, more frequent posting thing, but this will have to do. 

I have been in Prague for a little over a week. In stark contrast to the small and very randomly decorated apartment I stayed in with a friend from my program and our TA (both of whom I adore, so no complaints there) during my stay in Krakow, the ten days I have in Prague are spent in a home stay. I am here with 5 other students (the family sort of moved out, more to come on them) and we got very very lucky with the location of the apartment; we are only about a 7 minute walk away from the Old Town Square. 

We are staying with the Czech home-stay coordinator Betty, so on our first night here Iveta, my program director, came with us to work some things out with Betty and do some translating for us. Besides having a famous father who had just received a marble desk in his honor (I don't know, you'll have to ask the Czech's why a marble desk is a cool memorial), her mother lives in an attached apartment and is a play write. Betty has two daughters in their early twenties, one who is the "good daughter" and one who, according to Iveta, has a new interest every year--this year it's outdoor sports--as well as a new topic of study--acting now. Betty also has a man friend whose description was long an complicated. Iveta first described him to us as her partner Hansy but Betty protested so he was re-described as her assistant, but that got resistance too. Betty responded, Iveta translated, "not partner, lover. Or assistant. It depends." This was promptly followed up by one of Betty' daughters who said, "no no! He's her bed assistant." Moving on from his definition in relation to Betty, Iveta explained that he is an anarchist which was, of course, immediately countered by one of the daughters because "Isn't anarchy supposed to be about groups? Well, Hansy doesn't have friends." Anyways, anarchist or not, Iveta said we shouldn't be surprised if we see a man around. Betty looks like she is probably in her mid fifties and based on her daughters' ages that seems like it is likely an accurate estimate. So we wake up the next morning and see the infamous partner, lover, assistant, bed assistant Hansy--oh, who, by the way, has apparently been living mostly out of his backpack for the seven years they have been together--and Hansy has long blond hair, a beard to match, and can't be much older than 35...go Betty! So Hansy is the one who has been feeding us breakfast and reading a couple of my classmates astrological signs. 

The apartment itself is beautiful. It is full of pictures and paintings and there are collages of Klimt paintings and beautiful paper on every door and covering a lot of the storage boxes. They also have a cat. When the cat is around you can't let it sit near the open window. Why? Because it has jumped out of the window down 3 floors twice, duh! This cat also just walks around the apartment all day and all night yelling. Literally yelling. Or at least talking very loudly. Meows are fine, but I very deliberately chose talking because it sounds exactly like a human. 

The Old Town Square

As for Prague itself, the city is unbelievably beautiful and there are, probably for this reason, five million tourists everywhere all the time. But once you look over the tourists heads, the buildings are so old and detailed it's easy to forget you're surrounded by non-Czech people (until you run into them because you're looking up instead of where you're walking). Prague is the most rushed of all the places we visit and I am definitely feeling it. Tomorrow is our last day here and I feel like I have so much more to do in the city. But any time I feel a little sad about what I am missing because of all the lectures, seminars and reading, I think about how cool it is that when I stop to get a cup of coffee on my way to class I am doing it in Prague!

I kick started my stay in Prague with a Pilsner and some Judith Butler.

This is a famous old clock in the Old Town Square. Every hour starting at about a quarter til the top of the hour, 200-500 people gather around the clock and watch as some little doors open and some small man-dolls poke out and twirl around. 

These are the little apostles who come out and twirl

And it all ends with a man in yellow and red playing a trumpet. 

Finally, of course, Prague in all it's beauty.

Second Week in Krakow

This is a bit delayed and it is being confirmed, affirmed, and reaffirmed that I am very skilled at not updating. But I am going to keep trying to get better. I am in Prague right now, but first some updates about my second week in Krakow. 

On Thursday, we took the three hour train from Krakow to Warsaw in the morning and came back in the evening. For a round trip and a long day with lots of room for things to suck, it was a smooth day and very worth the trip. We had both of our lectures in the Federation for Women's Health and Family Planning, which is the only pro-choice organization in all of Poland. Our first lecture was from the director of the Federation. Abortion in Poland is only legal under three circumstances: when the woman's life or health is endangered by the continuation of pregnancy, when the pregnancy is a result of a criminal act, or when the fetus is seriously malformed. Unfortunately, even in cases that fall under one of these three circumstances, getting a legal abortion in Poland is terrifyingly difficult. For example, our first lecturer told us about a woman who had very poor eye sight and the doctors told her that if she had her child she was likely to become almost fully blind. But even with the first doctor's permission, when she went to receive the abortion, the second doctor convinced her not to go through with it, tore up the first doctors permission slip, and she is now nearly blind as the first doctor predicted. So, yeah, abortion in Poland, woah. The second lecture we had in Warsaw was from a Trans activist. The issues he talked about were a bit complicated and quite embedded in an understanding of queer theory, but it was a really cool lecture because it wasn't frequent in Poland that we walked away feeling empowered and optimistic, but he brought a very difficult issue to a place that was in fact empowering and excitingly new. 


I ended my stay in Krakow on Friday by interviewing a feminist economist who teaches at the university. We each have to complete our own independent research and I am (in a very brief description) looking at maternity and paternity leave policies coloration to how care is gendered in cultural understandings and representations of parents. So this professor is in the middle of writing a book (although is on a break because she is currently, and ironically, on maternity leave herself) about care work in Poland. I met her at her house and we talked for a good hour and a half and she gave some great resources and we really hit it off. Part of our connection has to do with a really random coincidence. While I was waiting for her to begin the interview, I saw an OSU beer opener on a set of keys on their kitchen table. It turns out that she and her husband lived in Columbus for two years while he was in grad school. So we talked about Ohio and Columbus and how happy she was that she didn't end up taking a teaching job at Bowling Green. They also love mountains and have been to Glacier National Park five times. What I am really trying to say here is that they should maybe consider adopting me (sorry Mom and Dad) because we have so many overlaps. Maybe I could just be adopted as a cousin. 

On my walk to class

The square

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Rainy Days in Krakow

(I wrote this a week ago, but didn't get it posted because of internet problems. Some photos from Krakow and stories from the last week will come soon).

I have been in Krakow for a week now and had only two rain-free days. It's much harder to explore the city because of the rain and cold, but also feels very appropriate for the location--somehow bright and sunny don't immediately make me think about Poland. Luckily, Polish food is perfect for these rainy days and 50 degree weather and I have been enjoying peirogis and borscht. There are these great places in the city called Milk Bars (or bar mleczny), which are really inexpensive restaurants left over from communism. Speaking of communism, the 20th anniversary of the founding of Solidarity, the Polish trade union that brought freedom from communism to Poland in 1989, is going on now and there have been lots of big bands playing in the square wearing goofy outfits and hats with big, red feathers. 

Rainy Krakow

Despite the rain, I have been enjoying the city a lot. It is easy to navigate and small enough to walk most places. We are located right outside the city center, which makes it very is to run into town for meals. The dorm in Granada didn't have a kitchen so living in apartments was highly anticipated, but everything is so inexpensive here and Poland isn't on the Euro so the exchange rate is fantastic, so it's much more reasonable to eat out. Not only is the food less expensive, but even the non-Polish food is delicious. There are a lot of vegetarian restaurants as well (again, it has to do with meat rationing during communism), which was surprising but very welcome since the food is extremely well prepared and seasoned and served very hot and fresh (reason #43 why Krakow is the perfect European vacation destination for the extended Barcus family, the Jewish district being #42). Even though this post would suggest otherwise, I have also done things besides eat in Krakow. We have had some really interesting lectures from locals, including one about gender in art before and after communism, one on domestic violence, and another on Jewish life in Poland. Tomorrow we are hearing about LGBT issues, which should be really interesting because Poland tends to be pretty homophobic in general (the 95% of the population identifying as Catholic doesn't do big things for gay rights movements). 

 Last Friday was a really long day. My group took a trip to Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II-Birkenau. The whole time it all felt very surreal and all too real at the same time. No matter how much we learn about the Holocaust in middle school, there is just no way to be sufficiently prepared for the experience of standing in the middle of a gas chamber. The sadness that fills the room was overwhelmingly present and is so far removed from the staggering statistical accounts; the heavy weight of grief and mourning just sits in the walls and in the air. A lot of the group very much felt like it was too much, some were very surprised by the intensity of the feelings they experienced, and a large number were also very ready to leave for good by the end of the day. As hard and tiring as the day was, I can't say that I had the same experience. I would want to go back tomorrow or even within the next few years, but I can imagine going again. It seems like such an important way to recognize the horrific past and join in the grieving.

Hands down the most important part of the day for me came at the end. After our tour guide left us to have some time at Birkenau, I sat by the memorial that was built in the 1960s that is situated at the back end of the camp. There was a group of a Israeli women standing in a circle in front of the memorial. Simply sitting by the circle was a moment of solace. The women were being lead by three male cantors. I do not have a strong sense of my own place within the Jewish religion, instead I find my Jewish identity much more within the cultural and in relation to others. Because of this, much of the day for me was spent thinking about my position in the camps. The sight of the cantor's yarmulkes, brown beards, and rounded bellies grounded and comforted me and I felt very present and positioned. I sat watching this group for about five minutes the cantor with a guitar began leading the women in song. I sat on the stoop of the memorial, in between two gas chambers that were destroyed by the Nazi's four days before the liberation of camp, facing the barracks, some still in tact and some with only the brick chimneys left. After a few minutes, the lead cantor lead the group out of the circle formation and they walked in a line down the train tracks that divide the women and men's side and were the tracks that shepherded in the train cars full of people. As they walked down the tracks, the melody of their song and poetry of the Hebrew words grew more and more distant until all that was left was the sight of this line of people.

Granada land

I am in the second week and last week of the summer school program for women's studies graduate students. It has been a really fantastic and intense experience so far. Our days start at 9:30 when we have two 1 1/2 hour lectures and then (thank god for Spain) we have a 3 hour lunch/siesta followed by 3 more hours of discussion. The theme of the summer school is "Performing European Feminist Futures: 1968 & 1989". Last week was a lot of heavy theory including boat loads of psychoanalysis with a bit of Deleuze (which I really enjoyed) and a lot of sexual difference theory rooted in Irigaray. Even though every day ended with my head swimming in pools of somewhat intangible theories, it has been really exciting to interact with Continental Feminism, which doesn't reach our classrooms in large amounts. More than the content of the lectures, though, it has been such a pleasure to hang out with young feminists from all over Europe. As corny as it sounds, everyone has so much to contribute and is so invested in their studies, it is really an inspiring environment start the semester in. 

A friend from my study program and I have spent almost every dinner with Amy, who is doing her PhD on the representation of women in sports in the media at the York University in England and we now have an open invitation to visit her any time (which she told us in her very charming English accent so it will be pretty hard to turn down). Beyond Amy, in my the small discussion group, there is a guy from Taiwan named Chi Chi who is trained in fashion design and doing his masters in Women's Studies at the Utrecht University in the Netherlands and dresses half in male clothes and half in female clothes and is otherwise as normal as you can get. We have also seen some pretty well-known European feminist scholars speak and they have come into the small tutor groups which has been a pretty unbelievable experience. Just today, actually, our first lecturer was talking about gender-sensitive analysis of photographs when she casually mentioned a conversation she had had with Judith Butler earlier this month. WOAH!

The residence we are staying in is 360 years old and absolutely beautiful. I also got lucky and I have a shower in my room. 

And a great view of the court yard. 

Not only are the dorms nice, but Granada is a beautiful city. All the streets are cobble stone and some are so narrow it's amazing a car can fit through. Because of the old Moorish influence, there are a lot of really bright colors and beautiful imports in small shops that are pretty much built into the hill sides. It is also a really accessible city. From our residence, the longest walk anywhere important is around 30 minutes. But really to get to the city center only takes ten minutes and includes a stunning view of one of the large churches. 

We saw an introduction to Flamenco performance, and the studio was in the gypsy part of town and had this fantastic view of the city from above.

Here we go!

Alright! For the next semester I will be travelling around Europe doing a study abroad program in comparative women's and gender studies. There are 16 students, one TA, and our program director and I will meet the other students tomorrow as they all start to arrive. The program starts in Granada at a two week summer school program for European graduate students. We are sort of auxiliary students to the program as we are the only undergrads and don't have to write the big final paper. From Granada we move on to Krakow, Poland; Prague, Czech Republic; Berlin, Germany; Utrecht and Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Istanbul, Turkey; and back to Utrecht for our final presentations on our independent research projects. Here is the program website for anyone who is interested in more details.

At the moment, I am in the lobby of a hostel in Granada. I spent the last two days in Madrid with a friend who lived there for a year and were therefor an excellent tour guide. Madrid was really enjoyable and I feel like I saw as much of the city as I possibly could have in just two days and the pain in my feet and calves is a pretty good confirmation of the large amount of walking that made it happen. The city was really accessible--the metro system is excellent (the second largest in Europe after London and also exceptionally clean) and the interesting parts of the city are surprisingly close together. The people were not intimidating like those in the only other European capital I've visited, Paris. It was definitely nice to be in a European city and not stick out too much. 

My computer is losing battery and I am just about ready for dinner, so it is time to wander the streets of Granada. More to come!