Mind's I (ePub)

The Mind's I looks into the life of an anonymous college student as he recounts his experiences during a semester abroad in Europe.

He crosses the Atlantic, lands in England, and immediately heads to Amsterdam. He ogles hobos and hookers, gets depressed at Anne Frank's house, smokes Pot, then turns Schizo at the Van Gogh Museum.

Initial exploration over, he travels to Prague, Czech Republic, his new home base for the school semester. He takes in the city and makes local friends, including a Croatian stranger whom he makes out with in a gigantic nightclub, then goes home with her.

Having settled in, he takes a spontaneous trip to Munich where he encounters Oktoberfest and lots of pornography. He gets so drunk at Oktoberfest, that he wakes up on a train to Berlin and realizes that he has lost all his valuables, credit card, and identification. This presents obstacles leaving Germany.

Eventually, he secures passage back to Prague in time to welcome his family for a visit. They then take a Kafkaesque trip to Ukraine that includes culture shock, extreme poverty, and dangerous driving. They return to Prague and randomly run into a celebrity at a marionette theater.

After his family returns home, some dorm mates and he decide to experiment with a drug called Perspective. They have such a glorious time, his friend and he decide to smuggle some across the border the following weekend to Krakow, Poland. There they encounter: out of control drunks, prejudice, and a "prison." They nearly miss their train out of the country.

Feeling empowered now after experiencing some new and unfamiliar cultures, he decides to travel unaccompanied for the first time. He goes to Budapest, Hungary and visits: castles, a citadel, museums, churches, Parliament, monuments, night-clubs, medicinal bathes, and encounters strange Hungarian people.

His semester in Prague comes to a close. He goes drinking with his teacher, and says bye to his temporarily gained then lost friends. He reluctantly fesses up to an innocent affair with a beautiful underage Czech girl.

He still has some time to travel before returning to the U.S. so he heads to Paris where he does: the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, Pompedu, Notre Dame, Moulin Rouge, Arc de Triumph, crepes, wine, and cheese.

He then takes a full-day bus ride to Spain to visit a friend. He remembers his previous trip to the country when he visited nude beaches and nearly died. Hanging out with his friend in Santiago de Compestela, it dawns on him how the new and unfamiliar, has become strangely normal.

He heads to Madrid, witnesses a mugging, and has a terribly frustrating day. The next day he goes to London for his last night in Europe. He waxes nostalgia and spends the night exploring London, flirting, and dancing.

Finally, he returns to the U.S. His savings being completely depleted now, he gets a job as a pizza delivery driver, then quickly gets fired. Life has once again become disappointing and humdrum now that the magic from his study abroad trip has worn off.

But just when life became ordinary again, he gets a visit from his cousin, that turns into a life-altering night. Despite all his short comings, he falsely concludes that he is the next Messiah.

After living for a few days as a savior, he begins to doubt himself. Following bizarre interactions with a curious squirrel and a mysterious guitar player, he realizes his folly. But in this process of finding out who he wasn't, he finally identifies who he really is, and even discovers the meaning of life.

He then follows up this revelation by accidentally sexually harassing someone and thoroughly embarrassing himself.