How to Build a European City

1. Begin with a river.  This will be the center of your city.  Two extra points if there is a small island in the middle for the really important things.
2. Build a castle nearby, either on said island, or on the nearest hill.  Hills give you leverage when waging battles with other European cities.
3. In the center, build the Olde Town Square.  Always spell old with an e.
4. In the center of the Olde Town Square, build a phallic monument to the victims of a war/massacre/plague that has occurred in your fictional town.
5. Build a monument or museum to something that no longer exists, ie: Well, this is the site where the (building of great historical significance) used to be, and if you go downtown, you can see the (building of great historical significance) museum.
6. Build a Gothic church.
7. Build a Renaissance church.
8. On the street between said churches, build an H&M, a Body Shop, a McDonalds, and a Burger King.
9. Public transportation must be: (pick at least 2)

~Exceedingly confusing.

~Prohibitively expensive

~Apparently free until you are taken into custody by the (undercover) police for not having a valid ticket.

10. Line streets with shops selling snow globes, t-shirts, plaques, playing cards, postcards, key chains, shot glasses, boxer shorts, hats, umbrellas, and various and sundry other merchandise bearing the crest of your new city.  This is key, because the only thing European cities ever make money from is tourism.

And there you go!  You are now the proud owner of your very own European city!

Description of the Castle

bricks and

mortar and

Breath

windows and

doors and

Eyes

turrets and

arches and

Soul

Perhaps if years were not as kind,

and ivy had infested, invaded, cracked

the marrow that holds the bricks

upon the bricks

then this bit of words would not be.

If the tired soldiers arches had fallen,

or the lazy (stagnant?) river

failed to do its duty even once,

then this page would still be blank.

If the redbrownburntsiennahintofblue bricks

had let go, given up, decided they were better

than this world

But then again, why should Is

 dwell in Perhaps If?

Switzerland

           I am on a train leaving Switzerland with five other (surprisingly) sober girls.  We have reached the state of delirium that only comes when people have spent too much time together to possibly be healthy, have stopped fighting, and have remembered that they enjoy the sound of each others laughter.

I am on a train leaving Switzerland with these five girls after having bonded on the grass of a landing field somewhere beneath a plane soaring 13,000 feet above us.

I am on a train leaving Switzerland with these five girls after jumping out of that plane and floating gently to the ground, fastened tightly to a man named Oliver, who, incidentally, I had just met.

No, this is not a dream.

We got to the drop site where we met 20 other American college students all oozing with anticipation.  We listened to a 10 minute lecture on procedure and body positioning, as if anything that was said at that moment could have prepared us for what we were about to do.  Even as the first plane full of people revved its engine and pulled away, we had no idea what was to become of us.  We passed the time by dancing anxiously in our red jumpsuits.

The plane came back into view, and all red jumpsuit dancing stopped.  We all stood, motionless, staring upward, barely able to make out the speck that was carrying 11 human beings.  Suddenly, smaller specks began falling out of it like fleas off a dog.  There were all the standard oos and ahs,  peppered with my terrified screams.  We counted each person as their parachute opened, and breathed a sigh of relief when we counted the right number.  They all landed safely.  Then our names were called.  I felt like a soul being called to judgmentwas I a saint, or a sinner?

My Tandem Master Oliver fitted me with my harness, gave me a hat, and told me I would be fine.  I walked in inches toward the plane, cursing him for being a liar.  I sat on Olivers lap in the cramped plane.  He was so good to me.  He held my hand and hugged me, and tried to take my mind off of things by asking me questions about where Id been, my family, my school.  Melissa held my other hand, and told me shed see me safe on the ground.  I didnt believe either of them.  Then the door openedThe air was so cold and thin I didnt even think it was real.

The couple sitting on the floor swung their legs over the side, and in an instant, they were gone.  I screamed at the top of my lungs, and nearly pierced Olivers leg with my terrified grip.  The next couple jumped, and then Melissa.  Oliver started to inch us toward the door and I tried to tell him Id changed my mind, that I didnt want to go, but the words wouldnt come.  I flailed my arms trying desperately to grab onto something to keep me from falling out of that plane, but within seconds, my hands were secure under the straps of my harness, and the plane was gone.

It didnt feel like falling though.  The ground didnt look like it was getting any closer, and my stomach didnt do loops like it did on carnival rides.  We justexistedin the air, with the wind echoing in my ears.  He tapped me on the shoulder, the sign to put my arms out like a bird, and we spun around and saw the peaks of the Swiss Alps, jagged as if some sudden violence had created them just for the six of us to see from the air.  They were covered in snow, and looked like the silent guards that neither speak nor move, but protect to the death the magic they are defending.  Then, suddenly, I wasnt falling anymore.

I heard a sound, muffled and unrecognizable, but different than the wind, and I felt my harness tighten around my body.  The sound of the wind stopped, and Oliver, calm as always, asked me if I was ok.  I replied that I was, but my voice, which Id meant to be a shout, only needed to be a calm response, came out as a whimper.  I was alive, and that was the best I could have hoped for.

Once I began to get used to the feeling of flying, my reactions to the turns went from avalanche-inducing screams to terrified utterances, to tensing muscles that I barely noticed as I saw Switzerlands landscape (and Italy and France) from a teal green parachute two miles above the earth.  After a while, I began to let my body swing with chute rather than fight against it.  It was like learning to be on a ladder, the first time your task requires two handsyou let go.  I began to trust it, like a person.  I almost liked it.  I told myself, this ladder/parachute/boy youve just met isnt going to destroy you.  By default, it will make you stronger.

Once we were about twice the height of the evergreens, I began to feel comfortable, like I belonged.  Compared to where I just was, this was low, and safe, and easy.  We came closer to the ground, and I bent my legs to land on my rear end as we were instructed, and for a split second before I felt the ground, I thought perhaps I didnt want to.  I liked it up here floating like a dandelion wish.  Touching the ground was not relief as Id expected.  It was the return to the world that was so mundane compared to the last ten minutes of my life.  I saw Olivers feet, and felt him trip up over me a little bit, and the teal green wave enveloped me.