Paddy in Linz Again

Paddy got home last night after three weeks in Thailand. He arrived bearing gifts (lots of gifts – his Thai host family was overwhelmingly generous!), full of wonderful stories about his adventures with strange food and the intricacies of communicating without a common language or point of reference. Although he seemed to find delicacies like fish stomach and soup with legs a bit challenging, his enthusiasm for fruit in Thailand is boundless. He has also developed a rather surprising interest in Buddhism.

He seems to have somewhat mixed feelings about being home again. "Home" – meaning school, Linz, Austria, the people here – is too limited, constraining, and he is getting impatient to be out in the world on his own, making his own choices and decisions. It is reassuring, however, that he still likes his family and he is happy to be with us again. I have the feeling, though, that we have just about reached the point where we need him more than he needs us.

With Paddy's wonderful sense of humor and the gift he has developed for telling stories, last night I realized how very privileged we are to have him come home and share with us his experiences and observations.

He might yet write something for this blog, but for now he needs to just go out walking around Linz. As impressive as it sounds to be driven around everywhere by a chauffeur in a car with at least one TV in it, he missed being able to just walk around by himself. Linz may not be the most exciting place in the world, but living here at least affords him a large measure of freedom that he can appreciate better from the experience of not having that freedom.

SQUEAK!

Did everyone hear a loud squeak last Wednesday?
That was the sound of Christopher passing French this year.

Yes – deep breath – he passed. Not exactly with flying colors and certainly not without a tremendous supportive effort on the part of a substantial number of people, including Peter, Paddy, Sascha, our former neighbor who teaches French at another school, Christopher's French teacher ... But passing is passing, so now he does not have to spend the summer preparing for another exam at the start of the next school year again, but is free to set out exploring Europe by train.

Now Christopher, Paddy, Sascha, Alex and George – that's right, five boys aged 15, 16, and 17 – will be travelling all over Europe for three weeks in August by Interrail. I think it's a kind of "coming of age" ritual in Europe. Whenever these plans are mentioned, the faces of everyone we talk to, no matter what age they are now, light up with pleasure at the memory of their own Interrail summer as a teenager.

At last, after three years it looks as though we may finally be able to enjoy a summer again!

From Paddy in Bangkok

As much as I'd love to make a blogpost... I'm afraid I'm yet again confronted with a rather... tricky situation. Blogspot is thai all over. However, I'd be delighted if you post this yourself.

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Wow... Isn't that great? This keyboard is bizarre.

Anyway..

Dear everybody,

I'm having a wonderful time! The food is much less intimidating now that I've been sufficiently brainwashed and... I guess I was just in a short (but very real) state of confusion when I was given an insanely spicy soup with legs sticking out of it. But hey, now I love legs. Bring on more legs I say!

Today I'm going to a place we call Koh Samui. Koh Saaaamui. It's a tropical island with beaches and palmtrees and spiders the size of bears and so forth.
I'm rather keen on that.

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The school here is very... interesting. Everything is purple, there's fish everywhere and little itty bitty thai kids. I haven't been given the opportunity of wearing the school uniform yet, but the time will come soon enough.

And wow the prices here are low. I mean.. really really bizzarely low.

But I need to go now or I'll miss my plane. Hah! .. Heh..

So long everybody!

In case you were wondering

First of all, thank you to everyone who asked about Paddy’s film.

Getting to Salzburg for the screening turned into a major organizational crisis, but we actually all got there in time for the start of the screening (since it started late). The 25 films we saw were very impressive, but watching them, seeing the other participants among the audience, we realized that Paddy really was the youngest entrant. Reading the credits, it also became apparent that most of the other young filmmakers in this final round are students at or recent graduates from art schools and film academies. So although Paddy’s film didn’t win a prize in the end, the fact that a self-taught 15-year-old is able to compete at that level is already an impressive achievement by itself.

Paddy has been trying to upload his film to YouTube, but he has been having trouble with that. He says he doesn’t know enough about rendering. I assume this is something one probably learns at film school. He is still working on that and also exploring possibilities for putting it up on his own website, which he has been redesigning again.

However, the film is not likely to be viewable online before July. Yesterday Paddy and I went shopping, today is laundry day, tomorrow will be devoted to packing. On Monday he leaves for Bangkok for three weeks. I’m afraid I’m really going to miss my little guy (even though he is distinctly taller than I am and cringes every time I open my mouth in public).

Then on Tuesday Peter leaves for Boston, so Christopher and I will be left alone at home and unsupervised for a whole week. We plan to enjoy it.