The reason I'm here, part 9723012938

Surprise surprise, I woke up sick yesterday. Just a standard cold again, but I'm really impressed with how much I've managed to be sick this semester!

I decided that since I had yet to take any sick days, I might as well take one yesterday, since almost no one would be in class (May 1st is a national holiday, so most people took long trips this weekend and came back today). I called in and told them I wouldn't be there, then went back to sleep for the rest of the morning.

Once I woke up, I spent my day actually being productive. I started and finished my final project for my producing class, and wrote the one-page trip report I had to do to get out of going on two trips with school. But before I could do more, it was time for me to accompany the family to a Czech traditional witch burning.


On the last day of April every year, Czechs burn the symbols of winter and welcome spring. I'm not sure how, but I was told that it was a witch burning, which leads me to believe that there was at least one point in history when they really did burn witches. Don't worry, they don't anymore. Now it's turned into more of a block-party type of thing, with villages raising money from their residents and breaking out the grills and the bonfires.

We began the evening with a walk through the "Czech Grand Canyon," a 5km valley on the opposite side of the river from our house that was carved out by a small river. It's a really nice place to walk (or, as Tomas pointed out, a nice place to go with a girl when you're 14. Yes, he said 14). Then we walked through the village over there and ended up at a big soccer field, where the bonfire was already burning.

About a hundred villagers (or village people, as Jonas called them with a smile) were milling about at picnic tables, playing soccer (we had apparently just missed the big match against their rival town), or warming themselves by the fire (it's been chilly here the past few days), all to the tune of a real, live, authentic, cowboy hat and boot wearing, beard sporting, guitar playing, Czech singing country western band. Bad Moon Rising never sounded so good (and the whole "there's a bathroom on the right" thing apparently doesn't work in Czech).

Tomaš and Zuzana have friends in this village, and they were there with their daughter. We all treated ourselves to a sausage and a beer and settled down on a bench near the fire (two fast-food style culinary delights I will miss: sausages and gyros/doner kebabs. How will I live without them?). Jonaš and I got to have some really nice conversations about movies and other stuff, and he was doing a prodigious job switching between speaking to me in English and to the other couple's daughter, who only spoke Czech.

The man of the couple spoke English very well (he's a businessman for an American company's branch in Prague), and he was a really great guy, so we got to talking quickly. He was really interested in what I thought of Prague, if I liked the food, what I thought of living with the Jančářiks, and about me in general.

And of course, with a little alcohol, the conversation quickly got very interesting. Things I learned last night:

-When asked what my favorite part of living in the house was, I quickly answered that it was my morning breakfasts with Tomaš, where we try to talk to each other about important things like politics, but have so much trouble understanding each other that we end up just resorting to "I think it's stupid!" "I agree!" Tomas, however, then told everyone that he always thinks we understand each other perfectly, until he finds out later in the day that he hasn't understood a word.

-On just about a nightly basis, I tell Tomas and Zuzana as I'm leaving the house, "I'm going to Dan's." Well, for the past three months they've apparently thought I was saying "I'm going to dance."

Which got me wondering...what on Earth did they think of me all these months...

The night wore on, the fire began to turn into embers, and I of coursed felt it the appropriate time to ask Jonaš where the marshmallows were. "Oh, we don't really do that here." WHAAAAAA???? Yes, that is correct folks, they don't roast marshmallows by the fire outside of the US and Canada. With the fire at the perfect temperature, I was dying for a s'more, and I said so to Jonas. "What's a s'more?"

It feels like I've been waiting a lifetime for the proper time to actually use this quote in context. "YOU'RE KILLING ME, SMALLS!"

The evening ended with a delightfully enjoyable, though slightly awkward for both of us, dance with Zuzana. Apparently I'm a good dancer. They certainly think so, with all the practice I've apparently had.

As midnight approached, we headed back to the tram...but there's still time for another drink right? (Jesu Maria! Zuzana cried) Two bars later, we resorted to a Herna bar (the ones open nonstop with casino games in them) down the block. When even that was closed, it was time to head home. We had a family snack, and all went to bed.

May 1st is a holiday in a lot of places, and here it was started as Labor Day during communism. Since 89, it's not called Labor Day, but they still get the day off. Everything closes, and people just kinda chill all day. I took the cue, woke up late, and then had yet another productive day. With only two papers between me and the end of my semester, I decided today was the day to just crank out one of them. So I did. Unfortunately that also meant I didn't post any pictures...

By the way, the Prague Post tells me

The Czech Republic and other East European countries serve the world’s unhealthiest fast food, according to a Danish study. Nutritionist Steen Stender said that fast food here contains some of the highest levels of trans fat, which he called a “silent killer.” (Don't believe me?)

I dislike FedEx

What if Run Lola Run and Cast Away had an illegitimate love child?

It would be my day yesterday.

Back up. So my license expires on May 10th, nine days before I get home. I'll only be in Chicago for one day, a Sunday, so I can't renew my license. I can't get a license in LA until I'm a legal resident of CA, which happens after 30 days of residence. I need to drive. So mom discovered that the IL Sec of State will issue temporary licenses for situations like this, they just have to mail me some papers to fill out and send back, and then they'll send me the license, but they have to send it here, to the Czech Republic, because the whole point is I'm not in Illinois to renew it.

So these papers are in Prague, at the FedEx office, and for the past two days a delivery guy has come here and left without leaving the package, claiming there was no one home, when Tomas has been here both times (and I've been here one of them). It became clear that this package was just not going to get delivered. So last night, I decided it would be a good idea to go to the FedEx office, halfway to the airport, and get the damn thing myself. I had one hour before they closed to get to the outskirts of Prague, figure out how to get to FedEx, and get the package.

When I got to the metro stop, I had about 20 minutes to find the place. Plenty of time right? Needless to say (let's remember one of the ongoing themes of the past few months) I got slightly turned around and was afforded the opportunity to use my Czech skills with just about anyone on the street who looked nice. I wound my way around an intricate Soviet housing project, asked random people walking for directions, stopped in a bar for some more, and every time I was told something completely different. After I walked in a complete circle, I called up the place, and they told me to go back to the metro station (a 5 minute walk) and then take a bus to get to them, and they assured me that someone would be waiting for me despite their closing in two minutes.

So I got back to the metro station and went to the bus stop she had said. Unfortunately, there were about five buses that came to this stop, and I had no clue which one to get on. I tried to call the office again. Their automated phone system automatically routes calls to a recording after closing hours. I had a feeling for one bus -- but the last one had left literally one minute earlier.

Time to give up. Or is it? The greatest thing about the times I've been lost previously is how they all seem to turn out well for me, somehow. I was all the way out here, I might as well just try something to make this work too. So I asked these two guys if they knew where to go. They had an idea. But were unsure. And one of them was kinda swaying back and forth while he tried to talk to me.

I started to laugh while he was talking to me. Yep, I got directions from a drunk guy.

As the bus they told me to take turned back onto the street I had just walked while retracing my steps back from the housing project to the metro station, I knew I had tried hard enough. I came back home for some dinner.

Epilogue: I decided to skip my Czech class this morning to wait for the package to be delivered. I woke up at 9 to sit outside and wait for the truck, but figured it would probably be a good idea to check out the tracking info online first. Oh, not to worry, it wasn't coming! After I had tried to pick it up at their offices they left it there and didn't put it on the truck this morning! So I guess it's going to be delivered tonight, when I'm on a bus to Berlin.

Czech this morning was as glorious as always (really, this class is worth getting up for even though I went to bed at 5am last night). More bingo, more memorable quotes, more laughs. And in an hour, I leave for a fantastic weekend in Berlin (from Na Florenci street - don't worry, I'm leaving in about five minutes to get there this time). As the days wind down here, I'm reminded of just how much of an adventure it is to just be.

Feeling even more at home

I find it amazing how quickly I can switch "modes" back into the way I am and always have been back in LA. I mentioned how in the next two weeks, I have a moderately large amount of work to get done, and the pile just keeps getting bigger. With that comes me feeling myself beginning to time-manage my days again, planning out exactly what I need to get done and how I'm going to do it.

To that extent, I knew I had a lot of class today (I always do, but my last class was a double today, so we weren't going to finish until 10pm), so after waking up at 9am for my Art and Architecture tour, I decided that twelve hours of class just didn't seem right and I went back to sleep until Czech class.

I think I should take a moment to write a bit of an ode to my Czech class, probably my most enjoyable class here. There's just such a fantastically colorful combination of people in the class that every day is nothing but a fantastic time. If someone's not saying something hilarious ("statistics don't exist") or doing something ridiculous (like falling out of a chair...and taking the table with), then at least I always have Stephanie right next to me to make delightfully malicious fun of other people ("ohhhhh, MO!" but seriously she's going to get a shoe thrown at her one day).

Take today, for example. We're all putting together these presentations to help the class review for our final next week, so each of us is in pairs and we're leading the class in a game to review our grammar and vocab. Today, my friend Steve, a quiet but goofy guy from Colorado with a soft side I discovered one day as we sat by a lake and talked about fishing, and Katherine, an incredibly friendly and cultured art major who's a chain smoker and always looks well dressed even in pajamas, led the class in Czech Fear Factor. Get a question wrong, and eat some funky Czech spreadable meat. We laughed so much, I really don't even remember what part of the language we were supposed to be reviewing.

Rest of the day was relatively uneventful. Watched a Hungarian film in my last class called The Red and the White, and I actually stayed awake...because I had taken a half hour nap while he was talking about something else.

I'm hoping that when I go home I can retain at least some of the carefree spirit I've had here. My life needs more trips to the park with a book (and MacArthur park is right up the road from us, too). That said, tomorrow I have class, followed by FedEx drama, then project finishing, perhaps paper beginning, and then certainly Brave New World finishing, and packing. I'm going to Berlin this weekend!

Don't have a heart attack now...

...but today I realized that I actually have some work to do by the end of the semester. It was a sad realization, one of those times when I woke up thinking "Dammit. I know I'm going to have to write a seven page paper, even though I thought I had gotten out of it by telling my professor I would do a presentation." Yes, I do often have thoughts like that right when I wake up in the morning.

The concert last night was fun, but definitely not quite my style. Dan and I walked in together, and I started singing "one of these things is not like the other..." and began to bask in the glory of all of my white suburban boyishness and its massive contrast with the vast majority of safety-pin wearing, cigarette smoking, studded belt sporting, moshing people (there was a guy there selling those small round pins, and to mark the occasion, I searched through all of the ones with punk bands on them and managed to find one with a Star Wars logo. Hells yeah). Dan and I hung out in the back of the place, a safe distance from the mosh pit where I would have undoubtedly been seriously injured by an errant elbow or seventeen.

If there's one thing you all probably know about me, it's that when I feel some pressure, I get productive. Today has even been reminiscent of some days at home (there are still differences. I managed to find an hour to have lunch at a cafe and read). Class, lunch, then a trip to Tesco to try to find some materials for the project I have to turn in this Friday (a poster with an interview and an essay on it). I didn't find the poster board, but I did find a temporary, though inferior replacement for my weaning supply of chap stick (I started shaking today from withdrawal).

Came home, started writing, and I don't think I've stopped. First, I wrote questions for that interview, then interviewed Tomaš about Czech TV...which was hilarious. As we began, I told him to talk to me like I was five years old. And then I learned that I speak about as much Czech as a fetus. Between that, and his answers (Q: Who's the head of Czech TV? Have you met him? --- A: Mr. Janeček, and thankfully I haven't), I had a great time, and so will my Czech teacher when she reads it.

Spent the rest of the afternoon working on a 200 word essay about Czech TV. About three hours of work for 200 words. And then, Jonaš took a look at it and showed me the meaning of 'all that work for nothing.' For all I know, a lot of what I wrote might have been Esperanto.

...you know, my mother insists she didn't pay anything extra for me to live here, but between the fantastic food, weekend trips, and guaranteed good grades in Czech classes, I'm starting to wonder if they shouldn't charge more.

So let's see. Today I almost finished my book, wrote an essay and conducted an interview in Czech, went to class, and went to Tesco. Honestly, that's the most I've accomplished in a single day this entire semester, and I'm quite impressed with myself.

Pet sounds, and an intense few weeks coming up

The opera was really great, and I only fell asleep once. It was Tajemstvi (The Secret), by Czech composer Smetana. Apparently some people in this country consider him an even better composer than Dvořák. But only some.

This morning, I commuted for over an hour to get to the really beautiful Troja Castle for my weekly Art & Architecture tour. There was a brief, slightly terrifying moment when I thought I might be the only person who would make the intense journey, thereby giving me a lot of alone time with Marie Homerova (a woman so beloved by her classes, past and present, that I had to create a Facebook group to extol her virtues...For some, it's her accent; for others, her catchphrases like "is it so?"; but for me, it's her smell that does it). Fortunately, others arrived.

Rushed to Czech class, where we had a fantastic conversation about Czech interpretations of animal noises (this, after our teacher, a beautiful woman with a hard-nosed tone in her voice who still manages to crack us up on a daily basis, entertained us with the sounds deer make while mating. Can't make this stuff up). Apparently cows go "boo," cats say "neow," dogs say "vuff," and rooters crow "rikidikidat" or something crazy like that.

I realized last night at 1:00am that I had a midterm in my first of three FAMU classes today. So I breezed through that real quick, then found out my second class was canceled (...again). I hung out for a while before my final class of the day. Zuzana was telling me over dinner tonight, about how her university classes were spread apart at inconvenient intervals (too short to go home, too long to focus on something else), so everyone just spent their free time heading to pubs for a bit. Some things never change.

A lot of my time lately has been dedicated to preparations for my parents' visit next week, something I've been looking forward to since about my first week here. It should be an intense next two weeks, beginning with my cab ride at 4:15am Friday morning to the airport (with Steph) to catch my 6:30am flight to Amsterdam. I should mention, because I think you should know and because it's too late for my mother to care about it, that we're going to Amsterdam with nowhere to sleep. No hostel. No bed. We're just kinda hoping for the best. And bringing enough cash to spend the night at a prostitute's place.

Velmi, not vemly

Without the play, I find myself, again, with a wealth of free time to fill. Let's remember who's talking here -- did you honestly think I'd just spend my free time sitting on the internet all day, or reading books in coffee shops? Cmon folks.

So Tuesday night my friend Liz and I decided to check out a DJ playing as part of FebioFest (a film/music festival, this one coincidentally organized by the guy who teaches my producing class). I couldn't get a hold of her before the show, but decided to go anyway and see if I could find her. No reason to waste a night just because technology sucks. And entry was free, so why the hell not?

Turns out they had rescheduled the group we wanted to see, and playing instead was a Cuban jazz group, direct from Havana. I jammed out to some sweet marimba/cha cha/salsa for a while, attempting to understand the Spanish (Cuban Spanish is like Liverpool English). It was fun, but I never found Liz, so I got bored after a bit and called Dan.

Yesterday was my standard Wednesday, or at least what has become my standard Wednesday with these slightly-meaningless classes at FAMU (I understand now why credits don't transfer back to USC). My first film class, the science one that's really boring, consisted of the prof reading every question from our midterm and telling us the answers so we get them right when we take it next week (admittedly, after this class I finally understand what's going on and find it interesting). That went a bit late, and when I went to my next class down the hall, the door was locked and no one was there. So I went and had dinner instead, and came back for my last class of the day, where we watched Andrei Tarkovsky's The Mirror. Well, they watched. I fell asleep for a lot of it. And then I left early to go play poker. Sometimes it's just tough to sit through movies with no plot, you know?

The highlight of my week came today, though, as I did some homework for my Czech class. We have to write an essay about our spring break, and I'm resourceful, so I of course asked Tomas to take a look at mine and check it over. What followed was 20 minutes of some hilarious interaction, consisting mostly of Tomas mumbling to himself and me in Czech while alternately correcting and laughing at my terrible butchering of his mother tongue and getting frustrated as he tried to figure out how to use the keyboard on my computer. One thing he and Zuzana got a real kick out of was my misspelling of the word "velmi" (which means very...I write in exaggerations, even in Czech!) as "vemly." I don't think I'm ever going to live that one down.

The two of them are gone now, though, off to a Maturity Ball for a friend ("go somewhere with girls!" they told me). And with the cat away, Vaclav is hanging around the house more tonight, chatting with me about his favorite YouTube video (please watch it, it'll make your day), his newest love affairs with women from Boston, ambitions for working at Mandarin Oriental hotels around the world, and a Method Man concert on Saturday.

Praha nights, you will never grow old.

I got lost again

But this time it was purposeful!

Back up - yesterday was a very lazy day (well deserved in my opinion after three days of rehearsals, classes, and general running-around. Plus it was raining). After dinner, I headed into the city and spent some more time with Dan and the folks from his program. Honestly, I see them more than people from my own program - is that an issue?

So today I woke up -- actually I don't think it should be called that. We need to invent a word that implies what happens when you wake up but you're still sleeping and staggering around everywhere. Let's say...began to re-enter consciousness.

So today I began to re-enter consciousness and went to class, where I inadvertently discovered how to tell someone, in Czech, that I want to have sex this weekend.

After class (and a heated self-debate over whether I was more hungry then tired or the other way around. I have those more and more frequently), Steph and I headed to Bohemia Bagel for lunch (I was craving some lox). When about five other people showed up, none of whom had a point of conversation with me, I decided it best to call it a day and either head back home for a nap, or head to a park for some reading (another beautiful day today). I found my body compelling me toward the funicular (that's like a tram, only...funicul-er?) up to Petrin hill.

When I reached the top, I started walking. I don't really know why, but I just kept going and going. Maybe it was the weather - it reminded me of those fall days when my dad and I always used to take walks around the block and call it exercise. Whatever the reason, I just walked through the labyrinthine trails around the hill, happening to stumble upon some of the best views of Prague Castle, an observatory, and meandering around a big, old wall. It was a great walk.

Came home, took a nap, and then helped Zuzana with a new recipe - last night, we had mashed potatoes with a big kielbasa, and when asked if we had mashed potatoes in the US, I replied that it was a personal favorite, especially with garlic. Garlic?? In mashed potatoes?? It seemed so strange to them! So we made some tonight, just like they are at home - nice and fluffy with butter, cream, and sauteed garlic. They were really delicious, and it was nice to expose the fam to a new piece of American culture. But I think Tomas will stick to the Czech kind.

It dawned on me today that my play opens tomorrow. Crazy! Makes me feel like I've been here for so long.

Self-meditation, all the time

Thursday was yet another beautiful day here. It's beginning to feel like spring already, complete with some girls venturing to wear flip-flops again. That's probably sounds insane to those of you in the Midwest right now.

So my producing class was, as always, ridiculously awesome, and the Contemporary Culture class that followed was just as good. Afterwards, I bought my ticket to Sperm Festival, which I'll be attending with Paige and Maggie, and maybe even all those people from dinner the other night. It should be a ridiculous evening.

Spent some time at the Museum of Communism, too, which I was supposed to do with my friend Mona, but couldn't get a hold of her. The place is pretty interesting, famously located above a McDonald's and next to a casino and started by an American business man who thought he could make a buck off the idea. They have some neat artifacts there, and I learned some interesting things. Like, for instance, since groceries were hard to find (to say the least), when stores got shipments the workers would save some items for people who they knew would pay them more. Butchers started to trade their meat, which they received once a month, for other goods, so a kind of barter economy was born. On top of that, something I thought was really strange was the Czech system for foreign currency during communism. Foreign money couldn't be exchanged for Korunas (Czech currency), only for a new currency (the name escapes me now...). This new currency was actually worth EIGHT TIMES as much as normal currency - so women would whore themselves out to Germans or Americans, take their foreign money and exchange it, then sell their exchanged money on the black market at an 8x profit.

On my way out, I bought a postcard and a red candle in the shape of Lenin's head. Such kitsch!

Speaking of things that are more valuable because they're tough to find, I got this email from my mother yesterday:

"So-Dad doesn't want me to tell you this-but- I got a Wii !!!!!!...as we speak, Dad is connecting it up downstairs. Will let you know how it goes!"

Jealousy ensues!

I also had the chance this week to start looking at classes for summer school, and was slightly enraged to find out that one class I have to take starts May 16, only four days after this program ends. So it looks like I'll be coming home much earlier than expected, and won't get the chance to travel much, if at all, after the program ends. It's kinda made me feel foolish for being in this play, since I probably won't get the chance to see everything I wanted to, but at the same time I think I've managed to organize all my remaining free weekends well enough that I'll get to see a bunch. I think things are really going to change once I can travel more; right now, after the play I've scheduled trips four weekends in a row, and I don't plan on leaving it at that.

Today has been relaxing, as all days have been lately. Czech class, followed by lunch at a place I've been meaning to find for a month - an American-owned, Chipotle-style burrito restaurant. Wow. I didn't realize how much I missed Mexican food. I took my time, savoring the burrito, spanish rice, and refried beans while reading this week's Prague Post (really, a great, intellectually written newspaper).

I think this week has been a time for me to really see why I'm in Europe for a semester. Of course I'm experiencing another culture, and that's one huge part of this whole deal. But in talking to some of those people at dinner on Wednesday, I was realizing how nice it would be to be able to spend a year here - long enough to not have to worry about what happens when you get home, to really disconnect. (I'm doing fairly well in that respect, I think, but all the same...)

Anyhow, I had intended to make this semester my time to try to relax for once in my life and see what happens. I kinda talked about this already this week, so I'll suffice it to say for now that my nights out with people from my program (which are fun-filled and more frequent lately, at Scott's shrewd suggestion) and my large amount of free time for reading, thinking, listening to music, looking at Centuries-old sites, museum browsing, and talking to my constantly interesting host family...they've all combined to start giving me a much better sense of...stuff, to be exact. So there you have it.

I'm gonna try to find a decent torrent of this week's LOST episode. Then I have a pillow fight to attend to.

the opera and the slopes

What a sweet two days! Our Czech language instruction ended with a scavenger hunt written by our teacher (the wonderful Bara). The hunt took us up Petrin hill (an area I had yet to explore, and was planning on it) to the 1/5 replica of the Eiffel Tower and a sweet mirror maze, ending at the world famous Bohemia Bagel for lunch and declaration of winners (I had a bagel, lox, cream cheese, capers, and onions, and it was amazing. My dad is proud, I'm sure). You have to love a country where your teacher can give a bottle of alcohol as a prize.

In the remainder of the afternoon, I went to the train station and bought my ticket to Krakow for next weekend. As it turns out, I'm going on what seems to be the "in" trip to take next weekend, which I have mixed feelings about. I bought my ticket with 6 other guys (including Evan W), most of whom I wouldn't exactly be best friends with. But, as Mom said, we don't have to be best pals; it'll still be nice to take my first trip with other people. It will be interesting to tour Auschwitz (on my birthday) with all million people who are going. It will be a story.

That night, the program treated us to some very cheap seats at the State Opera House, where we saw Verdi's Nabucco. The building is ridiculous (pics soon...I actually think that's the building in The Living Daylights, not Municipal House). Of course, the opera was sung entirely in Italian, but there were supertitles. In Czech. I still managed to stay awake the whole time, probably because the orchestra was awesome (and so were most of the singers), and because I bought a 47Kc English summary.

Afterwards, Steph Beren (Taryn B's friend and future roomie at IU) and I grabbed some dinner around the corner. Steph is awesome. I drank my beer and half of hers and was feeling toasty (seriously, I've been here for almost 3 weeks, drank nearly a liter of beer a day, and still have no tolerance).

I went home early, because this morning I woke up at 6:10am to catch the bus (with Zuzana and Jonas) to a ski slope near the border with Poland. Zuzana called today a "demanding day" and I would have to agree, especially coming from the guy who hasn't skied in a very long time (...and who's not athletic. There, I said it. Happy?). When Jonas and I got off the bus, I didn't really get what was going on - the bus was stopped in the middle of the street, and it didn't seem like everyone was getting off, so I sort of hung out there with most of my gear, and watched as the bus drive away with my poles...a looooong walk in ski boots later (wow painful. At one point, BOTH feet fell asleep in the boots), and I had a new Czech friend, and a new Israeli friend (from near Haifa) who studies at Charles University and speaks nearly perfect Czech.

The mountain we went to was really nice (though I've been horribly spoiled by my trips to Colorado/Utah/Tahoe), but unfortunately the weather this morning was not. At the peak, the snow was falling in big pellets, like small pieces of hail, which would have made a nice powder had it not been for the wind howling like a hurricane. I would have been afraid of falling down the hill, but the wind honestly could have pushed me back the other way.

After two trips down the slope in this weather, I was already ready for a break (it made me feel ridiculous saying that to Jonas and his friends). My legs are still adjusting to the amount of walking I'm doing here, and the hike before the skiing wasn't helping either. (Yeah, I'm making excuses. I can hear my mother and sister calling me a wimp already. Let's face it folks, Evan has had a storied history with skiing...). A quick recharge and I was back in action, though. The weather cleared up, and the skiing was, as Jonas would say, "quite nice."

I also got the chance today to get a good sample of Czech chocolate and Czech cookies, which I have been eating the entire day. Hells yes. I'd have to say, though, my favorite part of the day was the trip back home, which we did on public trans, carrying all our gear from the tram, up Baneofmyexistence Hill. Czechs make you have to deserve their cookies.

Kicked out

Not a particularly interesting day, I suppose. Tomas is sick, which is not fun (he's coughing right now...I think there's a Prague bug going around, a lot of people in the program are sick too).

After our last day of language class (yay! just a test tomorrow), we took a trip to the National Library for a tour. It was about as interesting as it sounds. Afterwards, I took the very short walk from the library to the Jewish quarter to make good on my plans.

I got there at 4, paid my admission (not cheap, but I got a student discount), and first walked through the Holocaust memorial - a nice synagogue, walls covered with the names of Czech Jews murdered. I like those. Upstairs was the really neat part, though - an exhibit of artwork made my children in concentration camps. I've never seen anything quite like it, and it was really interesting to see their interpretations of all of the terrible things happening around them.

But the real impressive stuff came after this. There are a lot of fantastic sites in Prague, but so far, the Old Jewish Cemetery is the only one to take my breath away. It's a tiny space in the middle of the old Jewish ghetto that, according to gravestone ages, has been around since at least the early 1400s(!). They didn't have much room to bury people after a while (they could only expand it so much, and they weren't given any more space to live), and in Jewish custom, you can't touch the bodies of the deceased (which would be why there are no bone synagogues in Kutna Hora). So, they began stacking coffins on top of each other, eventually piling more dirt into the cemetery to raise the level of the earth and make room for more people. Over 12,000 people, all in about an acre of land, all with their own gravestones. Quite the dramatic site (Flickr soon).

So you could imagine my state of mind when the security guard yelled "excuse me," making me think I had stepped somewhere I wasn't supposed to. He turned away, I started another way for a bit, and then I heard "EXCUSE ME...WE'RE DONE" loud and angry. The whole cemetery? I asked. "GET OUT!" Damn. Ok. They closed at 4:30, turns out (that exchange happened at exactly 4:30, not a minute after), but they guy was still a jerk.

This weekend, I'm going skiing with the fam on Saturday (though we might not, since it might be raining in the mountains), then museuming/Brian Urlacher worshiping/welcoming Dan on Sunday. Next weekend, it really does look like I'll be going to Krakow, which will be amazing I'm sure. It also really does look like I'll be turning 21 next weekend...

get me OUT of these Czech classes!

UGH when will they end? (this Friday!!!)

I'll admit it, I've been kinda down and out of late (ever since Friday's cell phone debacle), and I really haven't known why. It's that annoying tired feeling, where you don't feel like anything is particularly exciting, and that fact really frustrates you because hey, you're in Prague, things should be exciting! This Czech course, while I'm definitely learning something new, moves at a snail's pace because the language is so complicated. So I only have so many more things I can allow my mind to focus on while our teacher describes all 14 cases of a certain group of adjectives.

Today, though, I think I figured out the source of my problem. During a short break, our Czech language teacher told us she was studying for her PhD at Charles University, and she was studying Fairy Tales. SO COOL! I immediately went into "Evan-is-a-major-nerd" mode and asked her if she had looked into fairy tale motifs in film (something I talked about a bunch in a class). While the whole class laughed at me, I got really excited about something for the first time in a long time, and we talked briefly about what she studies (interpretations of fairy tales across cultures. neat!) and how those motifs go into so many media forms.

An intellectual conversation! An exchange of words that didn't have to do with finding out what school someone goes to, what their major is, what sorority they're in, and whether they like Lost or Grey's. It was really refreshing, and it made me realize how much I miss going to school. Wow, I can't believe I said that, and it's true. I'm incredibly excited for our classes to start on Monday (the syllabus for one of my classes looks SWEET!).

My awkward mood was only exacerbated by my on-again-off-again relationship with other people in this program. It has been very comforting to hear from both JC (my Prague expert) and Lisa (my all-things-travel expert) that they too had issues with people on their programs. Everyone here is really nice, don't get me wrong...but it just doesn't seem worth the huge effort to try to become "in" with the crowd. So I'm attempting to become comfortable with the fact that I'll probably do a lot of my traveling alone (some of it with Dan, hopefully).

But it got better today. I wanted to go to Munich for my birthday weekend (in two weeks) and couldn't find anyone to go with me. So I was going to go alone (JC promises I wouldn't be celebrating alone if I went. But it still wasn't ideal). I was really happy today when I lamented about it, only to find a friend was going to Krakow that weekend with a group, and would I like to come along? Of course. So I may be doing that, which would be great.

I've also decided to take some other advice to heart. JC told me not to spend more than an hour at a time at home, and since he said it, I've been feeling guilty every time I find myself looking for something to do around the house. So starting tomorrow, I'm going to find somewhere new in Prague every day I have some time. Tomorrow, it's the old Jewish ghetto. Sunday, some museum. From there, I haven't made plans.

Things I am thankful for

1. My shoes - it has not stopped snowing since last night, and it's not supposed to stop until sometime tomorrow night. As Evan W (amongst others) and his Converse shoes became ice cubes, my tootsies were warm, dry, and happy all day today as I trudged through what must be over a foot of snow. These shoes also keep my feet connected to the ground, which is fantastic, since very few places are shoveled here and salt (or some equivalent) on ice is nonexistent. And they look cool too.

2. My jacket - the snow wouldn't be all bad, in fact the cold wouldn't be all bad, if it weren't for the wind, which somehow finds a way to infiltrate even the warmest of jackets. I might as well give some props to my scarf here too.

3. My mother - for making me buy/bring above items.

4. My camera - we toured Prague Castle today (incredible...pics on flickr soon), and despite the cold, I managed to snap about 40 pictures. And they all look great, even in cloudy, snowy conditions. I'll have to go back with mom and dad and get more when it's nicer outside.

5. My iPod - with me staying farther from the center of town that the other people in the program, I spend a lot of time walking or on public trans. My iPod has become my best friend (and it's the hardest thing to steal, since I'd probably notice...). I think one of the reasons studying abroad is such a growing experience for most people is the amount of alone time you have abroad.

My Czech classes are going very well, and I'm having surprisingly few problems learning the basics of this language (though it gets MUCH more complicated...every noun and adjective has 14 different forms, depending on the way it's used in a sentence. Those forms depend on the gender of the word, as well as whether or not it's an animate object. gawhaaaa????). I'm beginning to miss things about home/LA, mostly just the familiarity associated with it. All this meeting people and trying to establish relationships is really tiring, and I'd really like to just sit down and have a conversation with someone who knows me well again. I'm excited to start finding find a feeling of familiarity here, which is sure to happen soon.

Tonight, Zuzan and Tomas and I are heading to a pub down the street for some New Orleans-style jazz. Hells yes.