My plan was to sleep in today. For some reason I woke up at 8 and couldn't fall back asleep, so I got up and had some Honey Rings cereal that I bought at Tesco on Saturday. It was really cheap, so I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it was kind of like eating cardboard with some honey flavor. I also had some tea with no sugar, because all we have is powdered sugar and sugar is bad for soar throats or something. Earl Grey tea with no sugar is ridiculously bitter. I drank it anyway and went back to bed.
I woke up sometime later and made real breakfast for lunch; eggs, potatoes, bacon, bread with hazelnut/white chocolate spread. While I was eating one of the girls who I know to have honey was in our kitchen, so I asked to borrow it. Earl Grey with honey is much better. After eating and talking to some people I tried to go back to sleep.
At some point today everyone decided my and Ali's room would be the best place to hang out. So here I am, sounding like a frog and blowing my nose every 5 seconds laying in bed and like 6 people are just chillin. I fell back asleep eventually.
I realize I should probably have real food for dinner, but that seems like too much work. I assume all I am dealing with is allergies since I tried not to take my allergy meds for a few days. I am just hoping I can sleep through the night and feel better for the last several days I am here! I am really bummed, too, because I was hoping to visit a lot of the places on the back of my map today.
Sunday, June 24, 2012
White Fields of Poppies Forever
Saturday a group of 8 of us got up a bit early to leave for Ostra at 10am. Ostra is this tiny town about 45 minutes outside of Prague. We wanted to go there because when we were in Cesky Krumlov there was a store that sold soaps and candles and lotions and such, and everything that they sell is made in Ostra. The train ride was nice and only cost $3! Once we got to Ostra, there was a giant field of white poppies to the side of the train tracks, but I will talk more about that later. Once we got off the train we walked about a kilometer to Botanicus Obchod Otevren...or something: http://czechunderscope.com/travel-guide/botanicus-ostra/lng/en/
I thought we were just going to see a place where they make the candles and soaps, but it was so much better. To get into this old town was 100 kcz for students, and then you could exchange crowns to get the currency of the little town, the grosch. It was 10 grosch for 100 kcz. The tiny town is like a minature Renaissance faire, only it is there all year round. The people working there were dressed up and you could do activities like wood carving for 3 grosch, gold panning for 3, rope winding, weaving, and candle making. There were also a lot of different pastries. I got a bread thing with cream inside and powdered sugar on top for 1 grosch. Later I got a doughy twisty thing with sugar for another grosch. There were real food items like lamb and dumplings that you could get on wooden slabs in this dining hall with candle chandeliers.
During the coarse of the day, there was a juggling act, a musical performance, and a falconry show. The falconry was fun, not as exciting as the AZ Ren Faire show, and it was also warm to sit in the sun. The musical show, however, was my favorite. It was 2 guys and a girl, and the first song was drums and 2 bagpipes. For those of you who don't know, I love bagpipes. In subsequent songs, they set down the bagpipes and one guy played a lute and sang, and the girl was like a master piper. I think over the 30 minutes they were playing she played...at least 5 different flute/recorder things. Here is an example of them: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kg9R7dpe4tM Unfortunately I didn't have enough money for a CD :/
I saw the main guy later and tried to tell him how much I enjoyed the playing, it was really awkward since he did not speak English and I didn't know what to say. Oh well!
The little old town had beautiful gardens and was overall just amazing. I got a woven wire ring for 2 grosch, I love it.
We stayed in the town til 3:15 and then went to the train station and the poppy field. At this point my nose has been stuffy all day, so it was probably not the best idea for my to run through a field of flowers. I had to though. It was huge. Like, when I say there was a huge poppy field I know I cannot adequately explain what I mean. I took pictures and video which I will post, but for now I'll try to explain it. We walked to the top of the hill to see how big the field really was. When you looked ahead you could see the end, and to the right you could see the end, but behind you the train tracks disappeared behind the hill, and to the left the field had no visible end. They were all white poppies with a few red/pink ones mixed in. It was incredibly beautiful.
Our train showed up at 4:15 and I slept the entire way back. At this point I am really not feeling too well. We got back to the dorms and I think I laid down while Ali and Kelly went out to eat. I took a bubble bath which was amazing and then I laid down again.
I really do have the best roommate and co-roommate, because Kelly and Ali brought me back nachos. Like, real nachos. My mood was immediately increased even though the salt was probably not good for me. Feeling a bit better, I went with 3 other people to the Tesco Extra for breakfast things, and tea. So much tea. I decided to buy one of the nice reusable shopping bags as well. We all hung out in the kitchen for a while and when I finally got to sleep there were people outside being really loud, but I felt so congested and gross I couldn't think to close our windows. That night I had really strange dreams of fighting off my congestion. There may or may not have been a dragon involved.
I thought we were just going to see a place where they make the candles and soaps, but it was so much better. To get into this old town was 100 kcz for students, and then you could exchange crowns to get the currency of the little town, the grosch. It was 10 grosch for 100 kcz. The tiny town is like a minature Renaissance faire, only it is there all year round. The people working there were dressed up and you could do activities like wood carving for 3 grosch, gold panning for 3, rope winding, weaving, and candle making. There were also a lot of different pastries. I got a bread thing with cream inside and powdered sugar on top for 1 grosch. Later I got a doughy twisty thing with sugar for another grosch. There were real food items like lamb and dumplings that you could get on wooden slabs in this dining hall with candle chandeliers.
During the coarse of the day, there was a juggling act, a musical performance, and a falconry show. The falconry was fun, not as exciting as the AZ Ren Faire show, and it was also warm to sit in the sun. The musical show, however, was my favorite. It was 2 guys and a girl, and the first song was drums and 2 bagpipes. For those of you who don't know, I love bagpipes. In subsequent songs, they set down the bagpipes and one guy played a lute and sang, and the girl was like a master piper. I think over the 30 minutes they were playing she played...at least 5 different flute/recorder things. Here is an example of them: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kg9R7dpe4tM Unfortunately I didn't have enough money for a CD :/
I saw the main guy later and tried to tell him how much I enjoyed the playing, it was really awkward since he did not speak English and I didn't know what to say. Oh well!
The little old town had beautiful gardens and was overall just amazing. I got a woven wire ring for 2 grosch, I love it.
We stayed in the town til 3:15 and then went to the train station and the poppy field. At this point my nose has been stuffy all day, so it was probably not the best idea for my to run through a field of flowers. I had to though. It was huge. Like, when I say there was a huge poppy field I know I cannot adequately explain what I mean. I took pictures and video which I will post, but for now I'll try to explain it. We walked to the top of the hill to see how big the field really was. When you looked ahead you could see the end, and to the right you could see the end, but behind you the train tracks disappeared behind the hill, and to the left the field had no visible end. They were all white poppies with a few red/pink ones mixed in. It was incredibly beautiful.
Our train showed up at 4:15 and I slept the entire way back. At this point I am really not feeling too well. We got back to the dorms and I think I laid down while Ali and Kelly went out to eat. I took a bubble bath which was amazing and then I laid down again.
I really do have the best roommate and co-roommate, because Kelly and Ali brought me back nachos. Like, real nachos. My mood was immediately increased even though the salt was probably not good for me. Feeling a bit better, I went with 3 other people to the Tesco Extra for breakfast things, and tea. So much tea. I decided to buy one of the nice reusable shopping bags as well. We all hung out in the kitchen for a while and when I finally got to sleep there were people outside being really loud, but I felt so congested and gross I couldn't think to close our windows. That night I had really strange dreams of fighting off my congestion. There may or may not have been a dragon involved.
Zoo!...behind schedule
Sorry I am a few days late posting, I have been a bit under the weather.
On Friday I went to the zoo with 3 other people from class. We took the metro then hopped on a bus and ended up at the zoo around 10am. The tickets were 150 kcz for students, so $7.50. Not too shabby!
There were a lot of different kinds of birds that I have never seen in American zoos, so that was pretty cool. There were also hippos and zebras and reptile enclosures like all zoos. My favorite part was the nocturnal area that had bush babies and these amazing animals called spring hares. http://library.thinkquest.org/5053/Africa/springhare.jpg
They were like bunny/kangaroo/tyrannosaurus rex/jackrabbits. My camera is amazing so I was able to get pictures even though the enclosure was really dark. I think this is my new favorite animal. Ever.
The weather was mostly good all day, but it did get hot at some points. There were two major sections to the zoo, and the upper section could be accessed by a gondola thing, or by walking up a really big hill. None of us wanted to pay for the gondola, so we all got a pretty good workout for the day.
We stopped for lunch/snacks at one point and I saw that the menu offered nachos. Now, I have been craving nachos for a while now so I got really excited. I ordered them; turns out, it was just a bag of chips. Barbecue chips of all things. I got ice cream to make myself feel better.
After the zoo we grabbed pizza on the way back. There is this amazing pizza place near our dorms, they make the pizzas fresh so it is always warm and delicious. It's just over $5 for a 42cm pizza.
Anyway, when we got back Ali, Kelly, and I decided we wanted to go to the Old Town Square and listen to a Brazilian music concert before the Euro Cup game, and then go to a jazz club/festival thing. While we were getting ready we got a call from another student about a dinner that was being made by a previous student who is planning on moving to Prague to open a restaurant. Ali wanted to go so our group of 6 went by the teacher dorms on the way to the Old Town Square. 3 decided to stay for the dinner and the rest of us went to the concert, Ali, Kelly, and I were going to meet up later for the jazz thing. Unfortunately the guy did the dinner in a really fancy way, so he timed out the courses and the time in between, so they were there for over 2 hours. When they didn't show up to Old Town Square the 3 of us that went to the concert just got ice cream and headed back to the dorms.
I walked around for a bit that night because a lot of the town is really pretty with all of the lights. The Charles Bridge is probably my favorite place at night because of how the light reflects in the water.
Friday night is when I went to bed with a runny nose; stupid allergies.
On Friday I went to the zoo with 3 other people from class. We took the metro then hopped on a bus and ended up at the zoo around 10am. The tickets were 150 kcz for students, so $7.50. Not too shabby!
There were a lot of different kinds of birds that I have never seen in American zoos, so that was pretty cool. There were also hippos and zebras and reptile enclosures like all zoos. My favorite part was the nocturnal area that had bush babies and these amazing animals called spring hares. http://library.thinkquest.org/5053/Africa/springhare.jpg
They were like bunny/kangaroo/tyrannosaurus rex/jackrabbits. My camera is amazing so I was able to get pictures even though the enclosure was really dark. I think this is my new favorite animal. Ever.
The weather was mostly good all day, but it did get hot at some points. There were two major sections to the zoo, and the upper section could be accessed by a gondola thing, or by walking up a really big hill. None of us wanted to pay for the gondola, so we all got a pretty good workout for the day.
We stopped for lunch/snacks at one point and I saw that the menu offered nachos. Now, I have been craving nachos for a while now so I got really excited. I ordered them; turns out, it was just a bag of chips. Barbecue chips of all things. I got ice cream to make myself feel better.
After the zoo we grabbed pizza on the way back. There is this amazing pizza place near our dorms, they make the pizzas fresh so it is always warm and delicious. It's just over $5 for a 42cm pizza.
Anyway, when we got back Ali, Kelly, and I decided we wanted to go to the Old Town Square and listen to a Brazilian music concert before the Euro Cup game, and then go to a jazz club/festival thing. While we were getting ready we got a call from another student about a dinner that was being made by a previous student who is planning on moving to Prague to open a restaurant. Ali wanted to go so our group of 6 went by the teacher dorms on the way to the Old Town Square. 3 decided to stay for the dinner and the rest of us went to the concert, Ali, Kelly, and I were going to meet up later for the jazz thing. Unfortunately the guy did the dinner in a really fancy way, so he timed out the courses and the time in between, so they were there for over 2 hours. When they didn't show up to Old Town Square the 3 of us that went to the concert just got ice cream and headed back to the dorms.
I walked around for a bit that night because a lot of the town is really pretty with all of the lights. The Charles Bridge is probably my favorite place at night because of how the light reflects in the water.
Friday night is when I went to bed with a runny nose; stupid allergies.
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Victory and Failure
My breakfast today was more of a success than yesterday! I cooked my bacon appropriately, but there was just so much fat it was still chewy. It seems better to buy bacon in a hunk and cut it oneself than buy in in pre-cut squares because the squares have so much more fat.
On a side note, I am absolutely loving my shampoo and conditioner. It's just Garnier so I am going to see if I can buy the same kind at home, but my hair is amazingly soft and not greasy. It's possible the weather here also has something to do with that...
We had class at noon and did not watch The Fireman's Ball because the disk cannot be found (I had borrowed the binder of DVDs last week so one student freaked out and insinuated that I lost/stole it). My teacher does not blame me for it, thankfully, and I know I didn't lose it. Instead, we watched Zelary: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0288330/. It was set during WWII and it followed a woman who acted against the Third Reich and had to hide in the small town of Zelary. It was really good and I loved the music that was incorporated. It had a sad and rather open ending, like most Czech film.
We were done with class around 4pm and I had an apple with Nusica...which is a chocolate/cream spread, and bread. Ali, Kelly, and I went to a thrift store that Ali found last week. I got a flowy grey shirt with a bedazzled neck line and a pink maxi dress for 270 kcz together...so just under $15. I have been searching for this exact kind of maxi dress for the longest time, they are usually upwards of $50. The store was this tiny adorable store with a bunch of clothes separated on racks of shirts, pants, skirts, etc. There were also some purses and shoes. I tried on several things and decided against buying this cool shirt that was covered in newsprint/newspaper pictures. If the writing was in Czech I probably would have bought it, but it was in English. Kelly got a dress and a shirt, and Ali got a bunch of stuff.
We then went to Old Town Square where the Czech Republic vs. Portugal game was playing. We got our faces painted with the Czech flag and grabbed pizza. We then got ice cream from this place called Boom, and I decided to walk on the wild side and get 3 scoops; coffee, cookies, and stracciatella. Kelly didn't want all of her ice cream, and we passed a guy who was sitting on the sidewalk asking for money, and she wanted to give it to him. She wasn't sure if that would be insulting or something so I gave it to him. Warm fuzzies. Portugal scored 80 minutes in unfortunately, so the Czech Republic wont be advancing in the Euro Cup :(
Tomorrow I am going to the zoo!
Our cute thrift store outfits:
Old Town Square where the Euro Cup was watched:
Random cute Czech guy painting my face:
Boom Ice Cream:
On a side note, I am absolutely loving my shampoo and conditioner. It's just Garnier so I am going to see if I can buy the same kind at home, but my hair is amazingly soft and not greasy. It's possible the weather here also has something to do with that...
We had class at noon and did not watch The Fireman's Ball because the disk cannot be found (I had borrowed the binder of DVDs last week so one student freaked out and insinuated that I lost/stole it). My teacher does not blame me for it, thankfully, and I know I didn't lose it. Instead, we watched Zelary: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0288330/. It was set during WWII and it followed a woman who acted against the Third Reich and had to hide in the small town of Zelary. It was really good and I loved the music that was incorporated. It had a sad and rather open ending, like most Czech film.
We were done with class around 4pm and I had an apple with Nusica...which is a chocolate/cream spread, and bread. Ali, Kelly, and I went to a thrift store that Ali found last week. I got a flowy grey shirt with a bedazzled neck line and a pink maxi dress for 270 kcz together...so just under $15. I have been searching for this exact kind of maxi dress for the longest time, they are usually upwards of $50. The store was this tiny adorable store with a bunch of clothes separated on racks of shirts, pants, skirts, etc. There were also some purses and shoes. I tried on several things and decided against buying this cool shirt that was covered in newsprint/newspaper pictures. If the writing was in Czech I probably would have bought it, but it was in English. Kelly got a dress and a shirt, and Ali got a bunch of stuff.
We then went to Old Town Square where the Czech Republic vs. Portugal game was playing. We got our faces painted with the Czech flag and grabbed pizza. We then got ice cream from this place called Boom, and I decided to walk on the wild side and get 3 scoops; coffee, cookies, and stracciatella. Kelly didn't want all of her ice cream, and we passed a guy who was sitting on the sidewalk asking for money, and she wanted to give it to him. She wasn't sure if that would be insulting or something so I gave it to him. Warm fuzzies. Portugal scored 80 minutes in unfortunately, so the Czech Republic wont be advancing in the Euro Cup :(
Tomorrow I am going to the zoo!
Our cute thrift store outfits:
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Theater!
The name of this blog is to be said in a British accent, as in "thhe-aeh-ter", just like at 1:42 in this song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGoLJZaNnyE
Anywho, today I got up to make a delicious breakfast; my potatoes cooked wonderfully, my egg was unfrozen like normal and scrambled delectably, but I burnt my bacon just stupidly. Like, I knew it was crispy, but when I tried it, it was inedible. I have no idea how I was able to mess up bacon that badly. I am hoping for better luck tomorrow.
We all met at the NYU classrooms toward Old Town Square at 11 to watch Lidice. It's a movie that just came out, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1754123/, even though the event took place during WWII, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lidice. I loved the music and the cinematography and toward the end when all the men are being shot I was just sobbing. Later, when talking to other students about the film, many did not like it as much as I did. I enjoyed the story and the characters, but one guy felt there was really shallow characterization, and he felt the director made all of the intended emotions too obvious. It think it's important to realize that most of the time audiences are stupid and have to be handed things, especially when we are just expecting entertainment, and not expecting to use our brains. Regardless, I thought the movie was very well done and it will be interesting when we visit Lidice next Tuesday.
We were supposed to hurry as soon as the movie was over to get to Prague College for a tour, but I made a pit stop to the bathroom and as I was leaving this guy (looked like he could be a student) carrying a box of cloth-animal pens started talking to me in Czech. I looked at him and said "English?" and he did his best to describe what he was doing. He was selling pens and fridge magnets for a charity for 50 kcz. There was a pink bunny pen, so of course I donated, (after dropping money all over the floor because I can't carry more than 2 things at once apparently). I got outside the building and was waiting with my teacher and the same guy walks out and comes over to me, he is pointing to a card with a website on it, he thanks me for donating and says I can learn more at the website, http://www.c4c.cz/en/index.php. I asked what his name was because my teacher keeps encouraging us to talk to people here; he said his name was Thomas something-something, and he shook my hand and I told him my name. We were in a hurry to leave, but I have finally mildly spoke to someone who lives here! Achievement unlocked.
A small group of us stragglers made our way over to Prague College and we all sat in a room while one of the co-founders (founded in 2004) talked to us about the school. I don't think I would transfer, especially since it doesn't have a film school, but they do offer a 1 year masters program that would run you around 10,000 USD, which is much better than most anything you could get here. Prague College is a part of Teesside College which is in the UK. They were voted #1 College in the UK in 2009 and 2010 or something like that.
After, me and some of the guys got some pizza. I just got cheese (margarita) like always, but it was just out of the oven and it was amazing! And only 25 kcz, so just over $1. I chilled out for a bit after eating and then called to reserve a ticket for A Midsummer Night's Dream as part of the Prague Shakespeare Festival. This guy and his mom were going to come as well, but his mom wasn't feeling well so he tagged along with me. The tickets were 200 kcz for students, so $10. It was so worth it. It took me a while to find the venue, but it was an outside theatre with benches for seating, and we sat on stage. The set was much different than I have seen in other performances, and the costuming was very...modern...kind of. I've seen this play at least 4 times, and I love it, but this performance had the best Titania and Oberon. I did not care as much for the Puck, but oh well. The sound design mostly utilized techno music, which worked in a weird sort of way.
After the play we made our way back through the park toward the metro, and we see a performance going on in a large grassy area. At first I thought it was some kind of interpretive dance thing, but as I watched I got the feeling it was more of a progressive alternative-type play. The brief amounts of dialogue were in Czech but I got ideas of the basic themes. It went on for a little over an hour when we started watching, and at the end I asked one of the actors what it was called, she said "Mens". I thanked her and said it was great, she seemed very happy for the praise. Unfortunately I cannot find anything online about the work, I am just glad I was able to record some of it. I got a really intense monologue (which seemed to only happen the 1 time in the entire play) on film and I am hoping to find someone to translate it.
It started raining at the very end of the play, and even though the metro was dry, it was a long cold walk back to the dorms. It was pouring. It still is, actually. Lots of thunder and lightning, but at least it's cooling down the dorm room.
Tomorrow we are watching The Fireman's Ball, which is supposed to be great.
Anywho, today I got up to make a delicious breakfast; my potatoes cooked wonderfully, my egg was unfrozen like normal and scrambled delectably, but I burnt my bacon just stupidly. Like, I knew it was crispy, but when I tried it, it was inedible. I have no idea how I was able to mess up bacon that badly. I am hoping for better luck tomorrow.
We all met at the NYU classrooms toward Old Town Square at 11 to watch Lidice. It's a movie that just came out, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1754123/, even though the event took place during WWII, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lidice. I loved the music and the cinematography and toward the end when all the men are being shot I was just sobbing. Later, when talking to other students about the film, many did not like it as much as I did. I enjoyed the story and the characters, but one guy felt there was really shallow characterization, and he felt the director made all of the intended emotions too obvious. It think it's important to realize that most of the time audiences are stupid and have to be handed things, especially when we are just expecting entertainment, and not expecting to use our brains. Regardless, I thought the movie was very well done and it will be interesting when we visit Lidice next Tuesday.
We were supposed to hurry as soon as the movie was over to get to Prague College for a tour, but I made a pit stop to the bathroom and as I was leaving this guy (looked like he could be a student) carrying a box of cloth-animal pens started talking to me in Czech. I looked at him and said "English?" and he did his best to describe what he was doing. He was selling pens and fridge magnets for a charity for 50 kcz. There was a pink bunny pen, so of course I donated, (after dropping money all over the floor because I can't carry more than 2 things at once apparently). I got outside the building and was waiting with my teacher and the same guy walks out and comes over to me, he is pointing to a card with a website on it, he thanks me for donating and says I can learn more at the website, http://www.c4c.cz/en/index.php. I asked what his name was because my teacher keeps encouraging us to talk to people here; he said his name was Thomas something-something, and he shook my hand and I told him my name. We were in a hurry to leave, but I have finally mildly spoke to someone who lives here! Achievement unlocked.
A small group of us stragglers made our way over to Prague College and we all sat in a room while one of the co-founders (founded in 2004) talked to us about the school. I don't think I would transfer, especially since it doesn't have a film school, but they do offer a 1 year masters program that would run you around 10,000 USD, which is much better than most anything you could get here. Prague College is a part of Teesside College which is in the UK. They were voted #1 College in the UK in 2009 and 2010 or something like that.
After the play we made our way back through the park toward the metro, and we see a performance going on in a large grassy area. At first I thought it was some kind of interpretive dance thing, but as I watched I got the feeling it was more of a progressive alternative-type play. The brief amounts of dialogue were in Czech but I got ideas of the basic themes. It went on for a little over an hour when we started watching, and at the end I asked one of the actors what it was called, she said "Mens". I thanked her and said it was great, she seemed very happy for the praise. Unfortunately I cannot find anything online about the work, I am just glad I was able to record some of it. I got a really intense monologue (which seemed to only happen the 1 time in the entire play) on film and I am hoping to find someone to translate it.
Tomorrow we are watching The Fireman's Ball, which is supposed to be great.
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
"Štěstí"
Today our class met an hour later because of the late night getting back from Vienna. My teacher couldn't fine Fireman's Ball so we watched Štěstí instead. The title translates to Something Like Happiness and would probably be considered a drama even though I thought it had a lot of lightheartedness.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0406098/
It's from 2005 and based in the 90s, so it is the most contemporary of the movies we have watched. It is also my favorite so far. There were 3 main characters who all represented aspects of the new democracy brought to the Czech Republic. It also illustrates the feeling of a generational gap and how the youth are wanting to distance themselves from their parent's views and traditions. One of the characters is a symbol for the negative effects of democracy and capitalism, and the concept of "going to America" is presented in a bad light as well. I appreciated the villainizing of America because I feel like that is a rather global mindset, but several students in my class seemed to think it was uncalled for. I also enjoyed how some of the characters found it really important to keep their traditions and their classic beliefs, while others in my class thought those were backward, or that those characters were not progressive. I think I just appreciate the overall feelings I am getting from the Czech Republic. I love the tradition that is inherent everywhere here; the old buildings, the music that is everywhere, the tendencies to be more reserved in public. These values are very reflective in the film-making, and almost all Czech film has an open-ending. It's incredible because the democracy is so new, almost in my lifetime. My teacher points out, the things that are occurring now will not happen again. If I visit the Czech Republic later in life, it will be completely different. That's crazy to think about.
Welp, let me get off this philosophical tirade... and I'll talk about my breakfast. When I woke up I poured a bowl of cereal and went to get my milk from the fridge. It was frozen solid. And no, I did not put it in the freezer. Ali let me borrow some of her milk, and I went to get an egg to scramble. There was a crack in the side and it looked like it expanded. I cracked it open. Sure enough, my egg had frozen as well. I took a picture because I have never seen a slushy looking egg before.
After class Ali, Kelly, and I went to Tesco to get some food. I needed more eggs and some bread and yogurt. I also found sliced bacon (sliced, but shaped in squares) and the bread seemed to be fresh. I also got frozen cauliflower because I feel like my vegetable intake is suffering.
After Tesco I made an early dinner of pasta and garlic bread. A small group of us then made our way to a tea place (as recommended by Kelly). I am typing this at the tea place right now! I got some kind of chocolate cake and earl grey (of course) tea. The guy working here is adorable, Kelly says he was here last year and is in high school. He speaks good English, thankfully, because I had no idea what kind of cakes were in the display.
Also, Ali and Kelly have decided my name is Bon Bon.
The tea has made me very tired so I think I'll relax and read tonight. Tomorrow we all go to the NYU classrooms to watch Lidice and then take a tour of Prague College.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0406098/
It's from 2005 and based in the 90s, so it is the most contemporary of the movies we have watched. It is also my favorite so far. There were 3 main characters who all represented aspects of the new democracy brought to the Czech Republic. It also illustrates the feeling of a generational gap and how the youth are wanting to distance themselves from their parent's views and traditions. One of the characters is a symbol for the negative effects of democracy and capitalism, and the concept of "going to America" is presented in a bad light as well. I appreciated the villainizing of America because I feel like that is a rather global mindset, but several students in my class seemed to think it was uncalled for. I also enjoyed how some of the characters found it really important to keep their traditions and their classic beliefs, while others in my class thought those were backward, or that those characters were not progressive. I think I just appreciate the overall feelings I am getting from the Czech Republic. I love the tradition that is inherent everywhere here; the old buildings, the music that is everywhere, the tendencies to be more reserved in public. These values are very reflective in the film-making, and almost all Czech film has an open-ending. It's incredible because the democracy is so new, almost in my lifetime. My teacher points out, the things that are occurring now will not happen again. If I visit the Czech Republic later in life, it will be completely different. That's crazy to think about.
Welp, let me get off this philosophical tirade... and I'll talk about my breakfast. When I woke up I poured a bowl of cereal and went to get my milk from the fridge. It was frozen solid. And no, I did not put it in the freezer. Ali let me borrow some of her milk, and I went to get an egg to scramble. There was a crack in the side and it looked like it expanded. I cracked it open. Sure enough, my egg had frozen as well. I took a picture because I have never seen a slushy looking egg before.
After class Ali, Kelly, and I went to Tesco to get some food. I needed more eggs and some bread and yogurt. I also found sliced bacon (sliced, but shaped in squares) and the bread seemed to be fresh. I also got frozen cauliflower because I feel like my vegetable intake is suffering.
After Tesco I made an early dinner of pasta and garlic bread. A small group of us then made our way to a tea place (as recommended by Kelly). I am typing this at the tea place right now! I got some kind of chocolate cake and earl grey (of course) tea. The guy working here is adorable, Kelly says he was here last year and is in high school. He speaks good English, thankfully, because I had no idea what kind of cakes were in the display.
Also, Ali and Kelly have decided my name is Bon Bon.
The tea has made me very tired so I think I'll relax and read tonight. Tomorrow we all go to the NYU classrooms to watch Lidice and then take a tour of Prague College.
Monday Funday
We got up rather late on Monday before meeting with one of the guys to go to the Danube. Once we got there, it was lunch time and my roommate decided she needed lunch. I had looked up pizza places on google maps earlier so I thought I knew where one was. The problem is, things on maps seem much closer together than they are in real life. We walked for a while and found this food stand with an adorable older couple working. They had pizza and gyros and such. I got a margarita pizza and a cool-aid looking warm pink lemonade drink for 3 euros. (Such a good deal I bought it again for dinner).
We sat in a park and ate; there was a giant beautiful church, I need to try and find what church it was. There were also some people yelling at each other really awkwardly and a really cool drinking fountain. I'll post pictures later... of the fountain and the church, not the people yelling.
We made our way back to the "beach" of the Danube and ran into another guy from our group. The guys decided they were going to go swimming. I told them it was freezing (based on when I jumped in on Saturday). Of course they were swimming around saying it was no big deal. After a while of laying around Ali and I decided to get in. We were going in step by step freaking out about how cold it was and these random people were laughing at us. Truth be told, it got better after a while...until it started getting worse. The guys joined us and decided we should play chicken. I couldn't stop laughing so Ali and I just started dancing and the guys told us we were doing it wrong, but neither of us wanted to be pushed in because we didn't want to get our heads wet because it was cold enough. Another guy from our group walked by when we were all laughing and hung around for a while. I didn't want to swim back to the steps so I decided to try and pull myself up the retaining wall, which didn't work very well. The other guy helped me up and it worked on the 2nd try. I'll post a picture of the "beach" because I don't think my description is making much sense.
Ali and I in the Danube:
The "beach" and a rainbow:
Anyway, we laid around for a bit longer then walked back to the pizza place and had an early dinner. We met back at our hotel at 4:45pm to leave for the bus station. I spent my remaining 6 euros (I had 50 for the weekend) on pastries at the metro station.
On the bus Ali was freaking out because "Flipped" was available to watch on the TV screens on the back of the seats so I watched it. It was an adorable movie, I highly recommend it. Little side note about these buses, they are part of this company called Student Agency and their tagline is "Fun & Relax", which seems like it is a bad translation and they meant to say "fun & relaxing". Oh well. Also, using the bathroom on the bus is one of the most difficult things I've ever had to do (I didn't use it on the way back from Vienna, but I used it on the way back from Cesky Krumlov I think).
We got back after 11pm and I took a cold shower when I realized how badly I got sunburned. Yikes.
We sat in a park and ate; there was a giant beautiful church, I need to try and find what church it was. There were also some people yelling at each other really awkwardly and a really cool drinking fountain. I'll post pictures later... of the fountain and the church, not the people yelling.
Ali and I in the Danube:
Anyway, we laid around for a bit longer then walked back to the pizza place and had an early dinner. We met back at our hotel at 4:45pm to leave for the bus station. I spent my remaining 6 euros (I had 50 for the weekend) on pastries at the metro station.
On the bus Ali was freaking out because "Flipped" was available to watch on the TV screens on the back of the seats so I watched it. It was an adorable movie, I highly recommend it. Little side note about these buses, they are part of this company called Student Agency and their tagline is "Fun & Relax", which seems like it is a bad translation and they meant to say "fun & relaxing". Oh well. Also, using the bathroom on the bus is one of the most difficult things I've ever had to do (I didn't use it on the way back from Vienna, but I used it on the way back from Cesky Krumlov I think).
We got back after 11pm and I took a cold shower when I realized how badly I got sunburned. Yikes.
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