Salzburg Global Seminar: The Schloss and Surroundings

The entrance to the Schloss and it's grounds, we never what awaited us through those gates


Across the Lake, with the Schloss in the background. An amazing view to soothe and calm any soul.


On the grounds of the Schloss with the lake and mountains in the background.


Look at that view. The grounds at the back of the Schloss looking out over the lake towards the mountains.


Anna May and I took a walk around the lake and this is one shot with a view of the fortress on the hill. This fortress can be seen from the front of the Schloss as well as from both sides but not the back.


The Meirhoff, the building where we had our sleeping quarters as well as our daily sessions.


A view of the back gardens from the second floor balcony of the Schloss


A front view of the Schloss


The other side of the back gardens from the second floor balcony


One of the two sea horses at the edge of the lake, one of two that are side by side and featured in the movie, "The Sound of Music."

Salzburg Global Seminar: My Group In The Chinese Room

My group consisted of Michele, Bryan, Amir, Arie, Sonya, Hans, and our faculty advisor, Andy. I swear we had the best and most efficient group. We got along great, divided up the projects into small sections with 2-3 persons in each section, and we had a fabulous advisor. We never fought and there was no bickering the whole time we worked on our project, and we laughed...oh how we laughed. We had the most amazing time, more so because we were using the Chinese Room of the Schloss with a view of the lake and the snow capped mountains. What more could we ask for.



A nice view of our main work area in The Chinese Room with Arie in the background.


With a view like that, anyone would be inspired to work hard...right.


Michele and I (pretending to be) working side by side ( I think we were having more fun than getting the work done...right Michelle)


Relaxing, reviving, and soaking up the moment in time that never came back.


Bryan...what a hard worker, and what fun to have around...imagine two trinis in the same group.


Hans making a point as Andy pays as much attention as he can, if you can judge by the look on his face.


While some of us worked away, other like Amir...well, you know what they say. A picture is worth a thousand words.


Michele, ever the hard worker (right?) and Arie, working just as hard (???)

Salzburg Global Seminar: Dining Like Royalty 111

It was lunch time on our fourth day and a beautiful day outside. I could not resist and led a group of sun seekers out to the balcony to enjoy the meal in the meal with the most amazing background ever


What a time I had in Salzburg...what a day...what a moment...


Joy and I, good friends by now, mugging for the camera, something we do quite well.


Hans, Joy, and I seem to be enjoying our lunch together, but don't be deceived.


Joy and Jana are very serious about their meal, unaware of the ever lurking paparazzi


Jeffery digging into some delicious desert


Hans and Joy getting down on their food, not bothered by a hovering cameraman


While most came out to have lunch in the sun and enjoy the great weather, other people, like Hilda for instance, had other ideas, as Betty and Milton looks on.


I decide to feed my good friend Joy, a mere mouthful of food. Isn't that what good friends do every so often?


Hans was having none of it and he let me know, then and there.

.

Salzburg Global Seminar: Dining Like Royalty 11

A fellow trini, I had no idea the beautiful D'Andrie and I had similar roots until we came back to NY and she joined a trini group on FB.


Amir (on my left) and I were in the same group. I don't remember the name of the guy on my right.(Message me if you know it)


Aurthur and Dominic sure knows how to enjoy a meal and pose for a picture at the same time


Jana, Rennae, and Arie share a meal and a table with me.


Chris is the Asian guy, but again, I don't remember the other guy.


Anna May, Juliana and Francois sharing my table and at least of of us is not ready for my quick shooting snaps...can you guess who?

Salzburg Global Seminar: Dining Like Royalty

It was food, food, and even more food at Salzburg. It was always buffet style, always hot, always tasty, and always enough for everyone. I have never had that much fun having meals with so many special people, and definitely not three meals a day, seven days a week, buffet style.

Salzburg Global Seminar: Lecturers, facilitators and all round amazing people

One of the amazing aspects about Salzburg were the great speakers who took timeout from their extremely hectic schedules to visit and share with us valuable information, and give and insight into how we can all become global citizens. Life is not about me, not about now, not about this minute. There is more to life than what is in front of us.
At Salzburg, we were introduced to people who were living what they were talking about. People who had gone places, done things and reached heights that we had only begun dreaming about. I am privileged to have come into contact with such people and listen to their real life experiences and learn from them. Here are some of them.

Salzburg Global Seminar: Special Friends

One of the best things about the SGS is the fact that it brought some amazing people together in one place for a week. Many of those amazing persons happened to be from my sponsor school, Borough of Manhattan Community College. In the week we spent together, many of these guys became close friends. Sometimes it seems like it's to short a time for this closeness to develop but believe me, it happened.
Now that we have all moved on to new schools, or some in the same school, we still keep that bond we have grown among us (via FB and other means). We have become an intricate part of each other other's lives. Here is a close up look at some of the honorable mentions. (Missing are Taylor, Venus, Teri, to mention a few)



The ultimate 'IT Couple" of the week, Michelle and I became the best of friends during the week in Salzburg. She was the only one who dared call me by the "b" word and I had my own special adjectives for her. We had so much fun together, and shared so much personal stuff. It was an amazing time for both of us.


Some of the group that I hung out with most of the time in the Beirstuba, the place were we had the most fun and cemented our friendships.


This picture features Anna May (Philippines) Juliana, and Francois (Haiti) I know Anna May will never forgive me for putting this picture on my blog but I just wanted to have one that I took, rather than one from someone else. Beautiful, funny, sexy, brilliant, caring,,,did I mention fun. I love you Anna May.
Francois and I sat next to each other on the first leg of our flight that took us to Frankfurt. We chatted for over an hour and within that time, I managed to get an insight into this quiet, strong, young man who was not afraid to live according to his beliefs, even if it meant being different from the crowds.

I had no idea Rachel was such a cool person and so much fun but we are now great friends and love each other to death. She is now on my list of funnist (is that a word)persons I know.

Joy is one of the few persons from one of the other schools represented that I felt a special closeness to. We seemed to have formed a bond out of nothing and I am glad for all those times we sought each other out and became great friends in the process

Sandra was our chaperone for the week in Salzburg and definitely an extraordinary person. She looked out for us and made sure we all got to Salzburg and back to NY in one group. Cool and fun, it was a pleasure having Sandy with us.
Harry Mars was one of the organizers of the trip and he was very much the gentleman all along. He has a deep affection for each of us and it is my pleasure to know him and call him my friend.



This picture was taken at JFK as we gathered before check in. From the left is Jeffery (Hong Kong) Juliana (Brazil) yours truly (Trinidad and Tobago, if you did not know) Gabriela (Cuba) and Denis (Russia)
Jeffery and I had many conversations and I had the opportunity to find out what makes this quiet, deep, caring young man tick.
I knew Juliana from Phi Theta Kappa but only casually, even though I voted for her as a vice president. All that changed from the time we met at the airport and now we are as close as friends can be. She is a strong, caring, focused, and fun person if you ever meet one.
Gaby and I were already friends and the person I knew best from the entire BMCC group but we became even better friends as our common ground expanded to greater things.
Denis I thought, did not smile enough and I was successful and forcing many smiles out of him. Not sure what he thinks of me but he is a cool guy whose eyes are open to what is happening in the world around him.