Overwhelming Adventures!

There are just no words to sum up my trip to Croatia, so I won't try (there are, however, over 250 pictures that might do the trick at least partly). I was alone for so long, I met so many people, I saw my second bar brawl in the past week, and I had countless adventures involving random Croatians, Queen music videos, and bottles of whiskey. And I kept track of it all in my little brown book.

I'm not really sure how to go about this...do you want to hear details of every day? Send me your feedback, friends.

Generally though, I can say a few things. Firstly, reading On the Road was a good, but dangerous choice. It gave me inspiration to break some boundaries and just talk to people, which is good, but it also made me crave those epic adventures worthy of writing in an entire novel, which can be illegal if the atmosphere is right. Everyone I met became a character in my modern version of that book. And that's what it could have been, too. I wish I had had the time to be able to just kind of float around - there were two instances when people offered for me to just go along with them on their travels, and I would have loved to have done it, but knew I couldn't. Instead, I just made the most of what I had.

A lot of fantastic things happened. I felt freedom, real freedom, for the first time. I learned why backpackers and travelers become smarter, better people. I suddenly realized I understood my sister, a world traveler for years, a lot better. I chased the experiences that might make me feel worthy of getting older.

Now I'm just trying to grapple with the headache I'm getting thinking about this being my last night in this little nook of a library, writing to all of you on this blog. My trip back from the airport took me past the best sights in the city, and all that nostalgia I was hinting at last week became less of a hint and more of a smack in the face from a guy with a ring on. I am overwhelmed with the amount of familiarity I have with a place I had never dreamed of seeing only a year or so ago.

Tonight, I've also had to systematically say goodbye to everyone in the Jančařík family, which has brought tears to my eyes (and will likely bring many more once I get home tomorrow). It was hugs for Vaclav (after we set off the fireworks he bought to honor the occasion) and for Jonas (who skipped a day of a class field trip to be here and see me again. Then a final "dobrou noc" to Zuzana, who reminded me to take some cake if I got hungry. And then another handshake from Tomas. Hugging is an American thing I think. But everyone deserved them.

I have never, ever, met any people so giving, so friendly, so welcoming, so selfless, and so wonderful as the four members of this family. For the past four months, I've done nothing but eat their food, use their electricity and water, and not clean my room well enough. In return, I've been given fantastic conversation, wonderful trips all around this beautiful country, and my own true family across the ocean from the one I grew up with. I owe most everything I've done, learned, and experienced to them.

For a while now, I've been planning some final posts that might serve as a good way to sum up the whole trip, but I think I'll do those from Northbrook tomorrow night, when I'm sure I'll be in a terribly Czech-sick mood and will want to write about such things and drink copious Czech beer.

Finals, tables, final tables

Pictures are finally up from Berlin!!

Saturday night ended up being a quiet one, which was fine with me - I watched Super Size Me.

Sunday we visited the ruins of the castle Landštejn, a HUGE Romanesque castle that used to look over the border into Austria (the border isn't there any more). We finished our trip with a breeze through another town with another awesome, huge castle, the name of which escapes me now because it was really long. Jonaš and I had a smaženy syr for lunch, and we were on our way back to Praha.

Last night was fun too. Dan had gotten wind of a poker tournament happening at a casino in the middle of town, so to celebrate my almost-doneness I decided to accompany him to what could very well be a fantastic tourney. I'm trying to spend as much time with Dan as I can in my last week here, making every moment of our long-wished-for time to live in the same city after high school.

Three tables filled with Americans, Czechs, Swedes, and others competed for a prize pool that ended up being 50,000CZK! That means third place out of this pool of about 28 people got 10,000CZK ($500). Dan and I were in this for the long haul.

And we both played the best games we think we ever have. My personal favorite moments were when we got to go head-to-head with our self-declared arch nemesis, a huge Czech guy sitting across the table from us who we could tell was the type who liked to bully people around with his huge chip stack. Dan and he had a big hand, which Dan cleaned him out on. The first time he and I met, I flopped a flush and called his huge bet for the win and he threw his cards down in disgust!

That win gave me a really nice chip stack going into the final table, which Dan and I were elated to find we had qualified for. Third place suddenly didn't seem so far off, and that's all we were aiming for in this crowd of gambling addicts (many of them were playing online with their laptops while they played the real-life game at the same time...). I won another huge hand against Fatty McCzech (pocket queens against his ace worked out for me even after he paired the ace on the flop. I yelled at the queen on the river, and he laughed it off, mocking me to his friends and saying to me "you're very happy!"). With the group down to seven, things got more dramatic as the blinds increased. Dan was eliminated in seventh place. I held on, dodging a few bullets...and picked up fifth.

So my 1000CZK entrance fee didn't win me anything, but I did play poker for four hours and came away with some great stories. My head hurt.

Today I had my final Czech language oral exam, where I talked to my teacher for twenty minutes in Czech. Yes, twenty minutes. I rule. Which leaves me with only the end of one paper and two tests before I'm completely done for the semester.

I'm excited to be done with the work, but what a bittersweet feeling it is to know that as soon as the work is done, I have only two more full days in Prague. I was eating lunch today with Stephanie at the American expat coffeehouse The Globe, when I looked out the window and suddenly actually iterated what I've been thinking for so long. "I have to come back here," I said. And there's no way I can't. Leaving now is like leaving right in the middle of developing something. Going home will honestly feel, at first, like a vacation before I just come back here. Is that how it's supposed to be?

Reverse culture shock

It's a real thing. You get so used to living abroad that coming home ends up being a shock to you, sometimes even more so than going abroad in the first place. And it starts earlier - before you even get home.

There are two ways to view my going home, but I've had this image in my mind that seems pessimistic, which doesn't really reflect how I feel about the whole transition. I have this image in my head that everything I do now could be the last time I do it, like I'm pushing a big line of events off the end of a cliff (I get that way a lot during the last show of a play I'm in, like the lines I say are leaving my brain or something. Weird, I know). So I actually made myself kind of anxious about spending this weekend with the family. My mind is already focused, at least somewhat, on home. I'm getting ready to reenter. I'm thinking more and more about waking up in my bed in Chicago and LA, and I'm starting to feel some of those same feelings I get when I'm at home. This seemed like an unwelcome interruption into all that.

Yeah, so that was a fairly ridiculous state of mind to be in. The weekend thus far (it's Saturday evening) has been nothing short of fantastic.

We spent Friday making the relatively short drive down south, passing through the small town of Tabor (where I stopped on my epic journey to Česky Krumlov long enough to get off a train and get on a bus). We walked around a bit there, admiring the oldest manmade lake in Europe. Then we were off again, speeding along winding forested two-lane highways at about 100 km/h with the occasional slam on the brakes for a passing animal, oncoming car, or interesting/creepy abandoned chateau on the side of the road.

Our arrival in the small town of Slavonice was marked by my getting to meet an old friend of the family's, a man who showed up at the house about a month ago. I had no clue who he was then, nor did I have any idea that we were going to stay with him here (you may remember I keep my information about these trips to a minimum, and only partly by choice). This affable, forty-something year old divorcee with a thick beard, easy smile, and incessant bandanna around his head, is named Ivan.

Ivan's house is awesome. A large hundred-year-old farm house in the middle of the countryside about 500m from Austria, he's filled it with artwork from his two kids, hundreds of books, maps, and colorful paintings. He works as a translator - that's how he and Tomas met a bunch of years ago and became good friends (and also how he speaks really good English). After settling in and having some hot dinner, we were off into town for a night of drinking and debauchery.

It was as epic as you'd imagine. Highlights:

-I've decided that in my remaining time here I should teach Jonas some American slang, so last night I taught him the perennial favorite, "I'm not gonna lie to you," making sure to tell him the exact situations in which it's useful to help you emphasize a point. Well, several hours and drinks later, he turns to me and says, "Evan, I'm not going to tell you lies, but..." I just about died laughing.

-We all started trading stories and games we play while drunk. I learned the incredibly fun game of flipping coasters (whoever can flip and catch the most at one time wins). Then I taught Jonas about drunk dialing, and almost got him to make his first drunk dial to my friend Liz.

- Of course, it wouldn't be a night of drinking if it didn't involve being accosted by a Czech homeless man who hates President Bush. I found out as we were leaving though, the guy wasn't homeless. Jonas knows his nephews. He owns a building downtown here.

-At the end of the evening (beginning of the morning), after I had eaten an entire 98Kc quattro formaggi pizza that might be comparable to the finest night of endless lovemaking (I'll have another tonight...), we were walking back to the car when Ivan suddenly stopped. "Do you smell that?" I'm still getting over my cold, so no. We followed him up a small set of stairs to a wooden door and a doorbell. He rang it, but the door was open, so we just walked in. The smell was suddenly overwhelming. We had just walked into the town bakery, buzzing with the work of baking the following day's bread and pastries. Heaven? No, that would be later, when I had a bite of the still-warm doughnut we had just bought. So much lepši [better] when it's warm.

What a night. Today has been fun too - lots of sightseeing around this place, including a trip to the neighboring town of Telč (a UNESCO site, though not as cool as Slavonice in my opinion) and a tour of the castle there. Then lunch of some fried meat (probably pork, let's face it) and a walk around Slavonice in the (sober) daylight. It's a beautiful town - really reminds me of Disneyland with its pastel colors and strangely new-seeming facades constructed in old styles.

Tonight, who knows. More debauchery? A quiet movie night? Finishing my book? We'll find out soon enough.

A quick goodbye

It's late and I'm going to bed, but the next time I'll be able to post will be Sunday, and I just can't leave you waiting that long. I've found myself with much less free time lately, what with my finishing up my final papers, tests, presentations, and the like. Which would also explain why I still haven't posted those damn pictures from Berlin. I'm sorry.

Last night was fun for a lot of reasons. Dan and I discovered a Herna bar near his apartment that's already becoming a new watering hole for us and his apartment-mates. It's a small dive bar with a Roma bartender and two prostitutes sitting at the middle table. The bartender loves us, probably because me and Dan love singing to her and she knows all the words to the American songs that come on the radio. A place with some real character to it.

Today started with our last real Contemporary Culture class, and I must say I'll miss that one - we've had some fun conversations. Then I had to present my project to my producing teacher, who seemed like he liked what I was talking about (he asked me for suggestions on which WebTV sites he should be interested in, like ManiaTV). I spent the rest of the day studying for tomorrow's Czech test, seeing Spider-Man 3 (it's a really fun movie, a good follow up to the first two), and downloading Lost.

So this weekend should be pretty awesome. I'm bringing my computer so I can finish up these essays in the car. And I'm going to try to speak Czech as much as I can, this being the last chance I'll get (um...ever) to really be fully immersed in the language (plus it'll be good review for my oral final on Monday).

Next time I talk to you, it'll be two weeks before I go home.

Did I just cheat on a test?

After two days of relaxation, I suppose I had a hectic day coming to me. My cold is wearing off, thankfully, so my usual busy Wednesday was a bit easier to bear than it might have been. Unfortunately, I realized at about midnight last night that I had a final today in that cinematography class that's kinda a joke. It might be a joke, but I do have to at least get a C on this test, since it will determine my entire grade.

So this morning I went to the usual Art & Architecture tour (our last one...Homerova, I already miss you), but left about 15 minutes early and went back to the study center to look over my notes. It was a bit difficult to decipher, considering I was reading notes I had written while paying half-attention to a half-drunk man who makes sense less than half the time.

Good thing, then, that my boring class, the one that I'm actually learning things in, covers a lot of the same material. So when I had some questions, I brought them up to my other professor, and he explained them to me like I was actually a smart person (imagine that).

But an hour later when the test was handed out, it dawned on me that I hadn't really studied as much as I probably could have. I knew some of it well, but some of it not at all, and I had no clue how this guy was going to grade us.

Then, something incredible happened. This professor, who had babbled for a minute at the beginning of the class, just left the room, leaving all of us Americans in the back row to conference with each other and look at each others papers. I would've felt guilty, were it not for the British girl in front of us who started by inconspicuously looking into her bag and then just gave in and took her notes out, copying the answers. And just about everyone in the room was doing the same thing.

He came back in the room, and we didn't really stop. And he just didn't care. So as it turns out, while FAMU classes might seem like big wastes of time, the teachers at least don't take themselves particularly seriously. They only want to make sure we know the material; they don't want us to just vomit up information onto a piece of paper. I think I did well on the test. And I suddenly liked the class at least a little more (though I didn't learn much).

Had some dinner with Evan W (who I haven't seen in a while, it was nice to catch up). As president of the USC Comic Book Club, he's taken it upon himself to organize a group trip to see Spider-Man 3 tomorrow night. We're all pretty damn excited.

After my last class of the day, I had one of those 'small world' moments. I walked up to the tram and was waiting for a moment looking up the river at the Castle when the guy next to me asked "did you go to high school in Illinois?" I turned around and said, "Did you do competitive speech?" He was an extemper from Buffalo Grove! He and his friends are here till Friday, and I'm going to try to see them some more.

Tomorrow should be fun. No early class anymore (WOOHOO!), but I'm making a presentation later in the day as my final for my producing class. I had to create a movie/TV show/something to produce, and I really like what I did - alas, here on the Internet where anyone could take my ideas, I'd rather not talk about it (though, if you hadn't noticed, this site is protected by a Creative Commons license. Email me if you're interested.

I'm also looking forward to the weekend. I had agreed last week to go with the family to a small town in the southern part of the country, but did not realize what I was getting myself into. We're leaving on Friday afternoon and won't be back till Sunday. My last full weekend in Prague will be a true weekend of adventures with the Jančařík family - could I ask for anything better?

Hope you didn't blink, I'm already back from Berlin

Well, the trips just keep getting better. Berlin, as many post-communist cities and countries are, is a city of lots of contradictions. The difference, though, is the way Berlin has absorbed a lot of those contradictions, making them an integral part of the city (and I guess that comes with the territory in a city that was literally a living contradiction for the majority of the past 100 years). It's such a cool, cosmopolitan city (Jonas said that for the past 20 years it's been called 'the construction site of Europe.' You can see why). And I realized after I got there, I felt this interesting sort of connection with the city, an excitement to explore it and get more familiar with it, knowing that my grandfather had spent a bunch of time here at war's end.

Our hostel was located in East Berlin, in an area that's become notable as of late because of an influx of artists moving there to take advantage of the low-cost housing in dilapidated Socialist housing projects. So we were in the area with a lot of nightlife and community, which was really neat.

We arrived around midnight on Friday evening after leaving a traffic-clogged (clagued?) Prague at about 5pm, and I just had to take a least a short walk and grab a drink somewhere or I'd have felt like I wasted the night. So me and a few others headed to an area recommended by the receptionist, where we found some sweet bars with outdoor seating (Europe in warm weather is a completely different place, by the way! Everything's outside, it's wonderful). I was amazed, as we were walking - in Prague, the night streets are crowded with people speaking Italian. But here, everyone was speaking German!

Saturday, we took a morning city tour with a guide from Michigan doing his grad work in Berlin, studying post-communist cities. And what a city it is! We headed first to Checkpoint Charlie, one of three places in divided Germany to cross from East to West, and got to see one of the many remaining fragments of the wall (of course I was humming Pink Floyd, did you have to ask?). It's unbelievable. I've heard so much about the terrors of the communist regime, but to see the physical remains of something so irrational (but so rational), and in the middle of a city that has emerged as a rival to New York, Paris, and London...it just re-contextualizes this whole utopian experiment. The best streets in the city are bisected by cobblestones marking where the wall stood.

Lest we forget, however, that Berlin was also the capital during WWII (damn, this place had a rough century, huh?). We walked through the Berlin Holocaust memorial, and I think it's one of the most effective I've seen (pictures coming soon). The afternoon was spent in a museum, after which I headed down to the Technical Museum for an exhibit on the history of technology and games (not as cool as it sounds, but I got to figure out the metro all by myself!).

And then, of course, the evening. We began at the Reichstag, the seat of German parliament, where we watched the sun set from the huge glass dome on top (does anyone else find it incredible/slightly concerning that it's so easy to gain access to important governmental buildings in Europe? Maybe it's just my American fear talking...).

Then, I went with a bunch of other people on a Berlin pub crawl (oh, I really am in college). On the way (and it was a LONG way. This city is bigger than Paris!), me and my friend Caitlin found ourselves a doner kebab that just might have been the culinary highlight of my trip (I ate terribly this weekend, but for cheap). The crawl brought us to pubs of all shapes and sizes, including one that made us all feel like we were on The OC, complete with sand, and one playing really loud drum 'n' bass music complemented by a badly played trumpet.

And may I take a moment to say, yes JC, it's official - I only really like Czech beer.

Stephanie put me in charge of making sure she got home, which I was reluctant to do, but we managed it. We spent over an hour taking public transportation (for 2.10Euro) and walking back to our hostel, after consulting multiple drunken Berliners who all gave us different directions in different languages (honestly, I'm getting really good at deciphering bad directions). All this, only to return to the hostel and discover all of our friends already sleeping in their beds after having taken a cab for a whopping 4Euro. She was a little mad at me. But I got her home!

Sunday (which is today. Wow that seems strange) I slowly regained consciousness for our 9:30am check out time, tried to ignore the overflowing backed up drain in our shower and toilet, and we headed out to the Pergamon Museum, home to some of the most incredible relics from antiquity I've ever seen (I took a million pictures). Then it was back on the bus to head towards home, with a two hour stop in Dresden during which we all took pictures of buildings that may or may not have had some sort of significance. Dresden is a really interesting city if only by nature of it looking so old, but being SO new (remember? It was leveled in WWII). We all felt like we were in Disneyland a little bit.

Arriving in Prague, as always was like a breath of fresh air. And that, my friends, is the whirlwind tour through my nearly instantaneous visit to Berlin. However short that time was, though, Berlin joins the very short list of European cities (with Prague and Amsterdam) where I could honestly see myself living at some point. I love cities with a kind of 'edge,' if you can't tell (my dad pointed that out to me) and Berlin has so much edge, in fact, that I think it might have hurt me - I think I'm getting sick, AGAIN. I guess that's what comes with little to no sleep every night...

Note: Tuesday, I'll post pictures if it's the last thing I do.

Weekend, revisited

Today's been a standard Monday, so I thought I'd take a moment to elaborate on the weekend a bit before I head off to the concert.

So an old friend of Dan's, who I know too, was coming to visit this weekend, and one of her good friends, who we know too (Nicole, her blog is a link on the right), decided to surprise her with a visit (confused yet?). So Friday we all went to dinner and hung out at a bar, and I managed to see some old friends from the play too, which was fun.

Saturday I told you about, with its castles and monasteries, and the evening was a series of good decisions for me. Had dinner with Dan and our friend Nicole and Dan's friend Eric (who I just met, it's a long story), then watched the Bulls game at Dan's and then a bar. Afterwards, we were debating where to go - with Katie (from USC) in town, I wanted to find her at a club across town, but they wanted to go around the corner to Lucerna. I was set on finding Katie, until I realized something. This was the last weekend I'd have in Prague with Dan! In fact, it was the last weekend we'd spend together for an indefinite period. With that nostalgia weighing heavily on me, I went to Lucerna and had an unexpectedly fantastic time chatting with some Austrian girls who I'm going to see again this weekend in Berlin.

The tram ride home that night was quite eventful too. First, I had to sprint about half a Km to catch it (that's the second time this week. I'm hoping not to make it a habit...). Then, once I got on with my smaženy syr (fried cheese sandwich), a drunken Czech man started to speak to me in Czech, and I actually understood enough of what he was saying to realize that he was absolutely hilarious (especially when he started to hit on a girl from my program).

That settled down once he lost interest, and as I finally found room to sit down, a couple stumbled onto the train, and the girl literally fell over. My incredibly charming self couldn't help but ask her if she was ok, and she laughed and said she was fine. Then the guy next to her who she hadn't come on with, a man in his late forties wearing slacks, a sweater, a collared shirt, and...earplugs..., asked (in perfect English) if I was American. I am, are you? No, I'm Czech, but I'd like to practice my English, if that's alright (ok, so he had a Czech accent). Of course it's alright. So what do you think (he took out his earplugs now) of the US radar base in the Czech Republic? Yep, I discussed politics with an entire Czech tram all the way home. (The base is crap, by the way)

So I slept well on Saturday night. Sunday you pretty much know about, and it was so nice to spend some time with Katie, who very kindly told me that seeing me made her trip for her. What an awesome lady, with great friends too.

This weekend was the first time in over a month that I've had the chance to really just be in Prague, without any kind of rehearsals to attend or trips to think about. And it made me realize something (I might start an entire new blog called "Evan's realizations" because I think I already have enough content for it. But that was not the realization). I am in love with this city. It's not like a "I loved studying here" or "I had a great semester here" or "This place is so pretty" or "I want to visit again" (all of those are true, but after a while you kinda become desensitized to how awesome the place is in those senses). It's more of a "this city owns a part of me" kind of thing. I want to live here again, not just in a college-student-studying-abroad-wishes-he-could-just-party-constantly way. And I could live here, really live and work. I don't feel like that about anywhere but Chicago.

Which is why I'm not going to Munich this weekend. I don't need Munich, and I can always go back. In my last few weeks here, I just want to be here as much as I can. So I will!

Weekend in brief

It's time for bed. But normally, a lot of people read this blog on Sundays, so I figure I should at least give you something. This weekend has been filled with some great visits from some outstanding people and some outstanding new stories.

Saturday was a great day. Tomas, Zuzana, Jonas, and I went to visit two incredible sites near Prague: a small castle, still in use as a residence by its owner, and a monastery connected to a church that was only half there (cathedrals have three aisles and an altar normally. Two of the aisles on this one were demolished, leaving only this eerie third aisle, and then the remaining altar was turned into a new church in itself, still connected to the remaining aisle. Hard to explain, but I took some pictures). Later, had a great night watching the Bulls win and partying at Lucerna (once my definite least favorite place in Prague, now slowly growing on me) with some new friends from Austria.

Today has been unexpectedly busy. Woke up late, had breakfast/lunch with the family (Tomas insisted I have beer with the meal. Turns out beer for breakfast is actually great), then took a nap (I know, I live a rough life) before heading into the city to work on a project with Stephanie (which actually entailed much more time just sipping on cappuccinos and eating more food than it did project preparing). Tonight, Jonas was having a bit of a party at a small bar in Zizkov to celebrate his (and a friend's) birthday, so I stopped over there before heading all the way back across town to meet my friend from USC, Katie, who's visiting this weekend from Florence (she's blogging too, but I can't find the damn address). We had a great dinner with her two friends, then walked around a bit.

Phew! So that's the weekend in events. New thoughts: I don't think I'm going to Munich next weekend after all (still going to Berlin though, don't worry). And in less than one month, I'll be back in LA. I don't think I've ever had such mixed feelings about an event.

Tomorrow, it's class followed by a concert, back at Lucerna, by the American punk band Rise Against. Never been to a punk show, so that should be fun. I promise I'll elaborate on all this soon!

My thoughts are with VA Tech

After I finished my last post, I went to Dan's and walked into an apartment of guys crouched over a computer screen, using the SlingBox to watch coverage of the VA Tech massacre. It didn't really hit me at first how far reaching this is. Along with all those people gone, something else came to a screeching halt on Monday - going to college in the US will most likely never be as free, just like how going to high school changed after Columbine. I won't say much more here, since I'm sure you're tired of reading about it and I don't want to talk politics on this blog (if you're not tired of it, check out my sister's thoughts from Australia and I've found Xeni Jardin's ongoing analysis on boingboing.net really interesting. And the wikipedia article on this thing is really astounding). I think it'd be accurate to say it's the end of the age of innocence for the American college experience.

On to sunnier topics...

Yesterday, as predicted, was spent roaming around town with Mom and Dad, making some last purchases, and then finally taking a nap. I got a phone call at around 5pm from someone involved with the Prague Playhouse (the group that produced my play). They want me to play a role in a staged reading they're putting on in a few weeks. The part seems really fun, full of improv; I hope I'll be in town to do it! Had a great dinner last night with Mom, Dad, and Dan, then said goodbye till May, and went out on the town with Dan and some other folks.

Which made today, my classically busiest day of the week, quite the experience to get through. It certainly had its highlights, though - my Cinematographer's Influence class, while being a large waste of time for all students involved, has established a kind of irresistible charm to it. There's something so cute about how drunk our professor always seems, the way he'll ask a question, and then in the process of explaining the question will suddenly ask another question (completely unrelated), and then expect the class to know which one we're supposed to answer. And when we do answer, as I did a few times today, if we get it wrong, we get one of a few classic responses (today, I said something was the index of reflection and he responded by looking me straight in the eye and saying "I go to kill myself now." I'm still not sure if I was wrong or right). And then my last class was canceled.

At home for the evening, I read some more news articles and took a nap before dinner. With Zuzana gone, I'm being introduced to a whole new side of Czech cooking, what Tomas says are all the dishes college students all make for themselves. So we began the week with that Slovak dish, and tonight we had another new delicacy: fried bread. Bread, soaked in garlic oil and fried like French toast, served with beer of course. The great thing about Czech food is it's all comfort food!

Tomorrow I'll relax some more, and probably Friday too. This weekend, Dan and I are thinking of spending a day at the spa town of Karlovy Vary. Assuming we go, it will be our last weekend trip together...I know I'm upset, and I'm sure the thought of no more stories of Dan seriously injuring himself is upsetting to you too.

Catalyst

I have been terrible to you, and I am sorry. No posts for a week?? I know, but there's a good reason I think...this blog has always been a kind of safety net for me, a way to bring my head back to home and have something comfortable. With my parents here, I guess I don't need it as much.

Spending time with my parents for the past week has been really great. They don't want me to go into detail about anything having to do with them (guess everyone's scared of the media these days), so I'll keep it pretty vague...but I told you last time about how great it's been to use their visit as a tool to reflect on my time here, and that has proven itself very true.

So what did I come up with? A bunch of things. Tuesday night, they came here and I had my second incredible experience of someone from home meeting the Jančařik family. Mom and Dad did their best to talk slow enough for everyone to understand, and once we got a few drinks in us (and then a few more. And a few more. And oh what the hell how bout a few more) things loosened up quite nicely. Mom said something that's stuck with me: she told Tomas and Zuzana that I had really learned patience since I've been here. I wouldn't say I've learned it so much as it kind of found me. There hasn't been a time this entire semester where I've felt impatient about anything, but then, there hasn't been anything to feel impatient about - no rushing, no appointments, nothing to make me wish things were going faster. Plus, when you have to speak slower to make sure you're understood (and when you talk as much as I do), you don't have much of a choice. All the same, I hope that's something I can take back with me.

Wednesday night Mom and Dad took everyone out to dinner, and it was another really nice night. But I'd like to talk a bit about Thursday, a great night with my dad. I think I spoke a bit about a famous Czech band called the Plastic People of the Universe, leaders of the Czech Underground culture during the Communist era. One of my classes had a field trip to see them play on Thursday night, and I invited my parents to come with me, not expecting them to come along. Mom wasn't too interested...but Dad was all about it!

So we went! I introduced him to all the usual suspects, including my teacher ("I can't believe you'd be interested in seeing the Plastic People!!" she screamed. What can I say, Dad's kinda cool). We walked into the venue, drinks in hand, and headed towards the seats in the back of the place, away from the rest of my friends. The band was really outstanding, especially once they got going (Dad wore earplugs. What can I say, he's really cool). The whole night was a tribute to their Underground colleague and frequent source of inspiration, Egon Bondy, who died last Monday.

Friday was the big drive to Budapest, followed by an excellent weekend of fantastic walks around a really nice city (not quite as nice as Prague or Amsterdam, but worth a visit all the same) in summer weather. Dad and I won some cash at the casino next to our hotel, we saw every Jewish-related site there was in the city, and we ate one of the greatest meals I've ever had (contemporary Hungarian food - I had fois gras (I know they're mean to the geese when they make it, but I had to try it. And DAMN that shit's good), Goose breast in a gingerbread sauce, 2 glasses of Hungarian wine, and a shot of Hungarian Peach liquor). Pictures soon (from Amsterdam too).

You know, maybe it's the seemingly constant words of encouragement that I get form my parents, but the whole visit was just really reassuring. They actually like my hair (WHAA??), and they really like spending time with me and seeing what I've been learning and living for these past three months. It gave me a sense of peace and confidence I don't think I've ever felt before, like it justified everything somehow. Of course I don't need that kind of justification for things, but you gotta admit it's damn nice when you can get it.

Especially when you've only got one more month left in a place you've grown to love so much. I feel like I've started something here, a kind of new life, and it's going to get cut off right when it's about to find its stride. Then it's back to the land of impatience, to-do lists, less reading for pleasure, and more bike riding to class. They say the culture shock going back home is worse than the culture shock getting abroad. I can see why, and I'm not looking forward to it. (Though I am excited to see everyone at home again).

Time to wrap this up...this week is not nearly as eventful, so you'll probably hear from me more often. I've been posting really vaguely for a while, which makes this really uninteresting, so I'll do better this week! (though this blog had a record number of hits last week, 115 on Wednesday alone! If you're reading on Facebook, you really should just take a peek at what these posts look like on evaninprague.blogspot.com) It's scary, but I can actually visualize the end now: next weekend I'll be here in Prague again (I need the rest...badly) followed by a weekend in Berlin and Munich (Vaclav is trying to get 2 free nights at his hotel's branch in Munich so we can go together...two free nights in a 5-star hotel? Eh, ok). Then it's back in Prague, finals, Croatia, and LA for the summer already.

Where does the time go?

Best trip yet?

What do you title a post about the weekend you spent in your new favorite location? Amsterdam is an absolutely incredible place, the first I've visited outside of Prague that has the same kind of unique soul to it. That rubs onto everything about it; the narrow streets, the canals, the intense value of freedom, the intelligence of the whole place...it's just really great. The first place I've been to outside of Prague where I said "you know what...I could live here."

As per the hostel situation, I must say I kinda lied to you. It's true we were going without a hostel booked, but one of the girls we were traveling with had been too nervous to go without anything booked and had gotten an (expensive) hotel. So when we found out on Thursday morning that the hostel we were banking on wasn't going to have any rooms, we weren't being left out to dry, and we didn't panic. We just dished out some extra cash.

It was a fantastic weekend, full of what seems like millions of stories. I loved hanging out with Josh and Marty, two great guys who always make sure it's a great time. Highlights:

-In the airport, trying to figure out how to get a train ticket to the city center, we encountered one American who was having trouble and asked us a question. When Dan started talking to him, the guy just started saying "yeah, BEEN THERE. BEEN THERE. BEEN THERE." over and over again. It was hilarious, trust me.

-The Van Gogh museum was incredible. I spent what seemed like hours looking at the paintings I recognized, and got a whole new appreciation of them, seeing them in their original forms with their original textures.

-No one hired a prostitute, or even saw a sex show. But we almost had Dan convinced. I mean, who could resist a massive black woman in a bikini? Who???

-On Sunday morning, my phone rang at 9:30am (while we were still asleep). It was Mike Breen (another friend from high school) - apparently a friend of his had lost his backpack in Amsterdam and needed some cash to get him bailed out. Two phone calls later, we were meeting this friend (who, according to Breen, was wearing purple and "answers to the name Paul.") at another hotel, and Dan, Josh, and Marty were not happy about it. Turns out thought, it was all a lie - Paul was Mike!! He had taken an overnight bus just to meet all of us!

-Mike and I found a hostel to stay in for Sunday night, after the other three had left us, and we checked in and headed up to our beds for a quick nap. As we looked out our window at the town, we had wordless conversations about the scary Japanese guy sleeping in the bed next to mine, who had clearly not left the hostel the entire day, and had clearly not showered in several. The only thing that could make that better: Breen noticed something moving in his bed...in between the sheet and the mattress. To make that better...it was a mouse. I screamed like a schoolgirl. And to make it all worthwhile...I got it all on video. (on YT soon)

Ohhhh, there's so much more, but I'm sure it will all come out in stories I tell later.

Rushed home form the airport this morning and managed to eat lunch before meeting my parents in the city. As expected, seeing them has already been a really awesome relief for me. It's serving as a kind of barrier for my time here - how much have I done? How much have I experienced and learned? Am I doing this right? And the answers thus far are all positive. I love showing them around like this is my city.

Now, it's an early bedtime for me I think. I'm starting to finally come down with the spring cold everyone else had before me, and I'd love if it was gone before I went to Budapest this weekend with mom and dad.

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.

The moral of the story

NOTE: This is part 2 of my adventures this weekend. It won't make sense unless you read this first.

I can travel alone. In fact, in some ways I prefer it. Those several hours by myself were really great, and I had no problem finding things to do and places to explore. Albeit, it was really nice to see a familiar face when I spotted my friend Kara, and I was happy once everyone got there. But unlike them, I really had something to hang my hat on about the day. This is a good thing to realize, considering I'm more than likely going to be spending five days wandering Croatia alone.

It reminds me of something Kristen (the girl me and Dan stayed with in Switzerland) told us about traveling alone (which she's currently doing for two months). I asked her what it was like and she responded with, "it's actually hard to be alone sometimes." Which I took to mean she got lonely. But she really meant it was hard to find herself physically alone. Wherever she went, she started talking to people and made new friends (like me and Dan) and as a result, she hadn't really had any time to herself the entire time she'd been traveling "alone."

It was really great to spend time with some people from my program, something I feel like I haven't done enough in these past two months of rehearsals and performances. It's just so easy to call up Dan. But it's good to know I have other options - it reminds me that it's not as if I've failed in making friends while I've been here. When I was in a bind, I got help. If that's not friendship, I don't know what is.

Enough with the sentimentals. This week should be fun - Josh and Marty (Dan's friends from Michigan and mine from high school and other places...it's complicated) arrive on Wednesday, and on Friday morning (eeaaaarrrly) we all leave for Amsterdam. And tomorrow is a HUGE day for sports - sure, the NCAA basketball championship, but the opening day of baseball! Cmon, what's more important?

PS - Happy (belated) birthday, Jason!

I'm an idiot (or: why I hate Na Florenci street)

So I missed the friggin bus to česky Krumlov.

It wasn't completely my fault (yes it was). I am completely at the mercy of public trans here, so when the tram decides to stop running to my house's tram stop for the week, as it did on Friday night at 8pm, I have to figure out new ways to get places. Now, I was aware of this. I knew I would have to take the metro to get to where the bus was (Na Florenci street...you may remember my previous experience with lateness at this very same place). I just haven't taken the metro from the house in so long that I forgot how long it takes to get there.

So when I went to bed on Friday night, I set my alarm for 7am, giving myself plenty of time to get to the bus by 8:15am. I didn't go out on Friday (rather than spending another minute at Lucerna, I watched a movie on my new favorite website, peekvid.com). But when I went to bed, I looked at my alarm clock once more and thought "you know...I deserve 20 more minutes."

It was one of those annoying situations where you run up to the bus stop, just as the bus is pulling away. And running is damn tough when you have a big backpack on.

Now, some people in this situation, they give up. Having another weekend in Prague wouldn't be that bad, after all, and I didn't really need to see the place. But not me.

I was instantly on the phone, sending text messages to everyone I knew to ask if they were going on this trip. My first positive response was from my friend Huntley (from USC) - perfect! I have a contact! The main bus station in Prague is right next to where I had just watched our bus pull away, so I went down there and asked the lady at the desk for a ticket to Cesky Krumlov. "Busses aren't running there today."

Well shit.

A metro stop away (after I accidentally got on going the wrong direction once and turned around), I found myself at Hlavni Nadraži, the main strain station. The guy at the info desk spoke English very well and informed me that not only was there a train to Cesky Krumlov, but it was leaving in 12 minutes and would arrive in four hours. Yes! My goal was only three trains and a bus ride away! With a sigh, a smile to myself, and a moment of self-reassurance ("I'm gonna do this"), I bought a ticket.

Once I got on the train, I called Huntley and explained my situation. As it turned out, I would be arriving in Krumlov 4 hours before the rest of the group (they made a stop in another town on the way). He gave me the address of the hostel we would be checking into later, I asked him to tell our trip supervisor that I'd meet them there, and I settled into my chair for the long ride.

So, despite the drama, it actually turned out quite well. I got the chance to travel alone for the first time (I don't know why people would think it's difficult. You just have to read signs), and I arrived in Krumlov with four hours to kill on the kind of sunny day when you pray for four hours to kill so you can just walk around. And on the way I made some great new friends - on the first train, there was the Czech guy who was studying to work for Skoda (the Czech car company), and who was nice enough to explain to me why I had to take a bus for only 20 minutes (they were doing construction on the rail line). On the second train, I shared a cabin with a couple who were speaking to each other in Spanish, but the woman addressed me in Czech at first. I asked where they were from - she's Czech, he's English. Interesting.

Cesky Krumlov is a really beautiful place, filled with colorful architecture and lots of fun nooks and crannies to explore. It was a 20 minute walk to town from the train station, and after dropping my stuff at the hostel (and explaining to the woman on duty what my situation was), I immediately treated myself to a huge lunch (see picture above). Then, I set about exploring, walking about every street in town and taking tons of photos. I even stumbled upon a friend from my program, who was in town with her family. When everyone else arrived, I made sure to be sitting in the hostel, having a coffee. The town they had visited on the way hadn't been all too interesting, it turns out. And how the hell did I get there? they all wanted to know.

The hostel itself was outstanding. I shared a room with Huntley (my savior. I bought him a drink) and one other guy, and it was a huge room with a really nice shower. We had some dinner (I knew where all the good places were, having passed them more than a few times in my four hour expedition) and then spent the evening at a local bar playing rock-a-billy music (which we only found because, armed only with the instructions "it's above a water wheel," I knew exactly where to go...because I had passed it before. See? It was all worth it!)

Today was also a lovely day. We were shown around the castle, and given admittance into the incredible Baroque theatre (a building only normally opened three times a year for performances, and one of only three in the world that's been preserved, not reconstructed, since it was finished in the 18th century. LOTS of pictures to come on Flickr). Then we had some free time to roam about the city (like I needed any more), and I visited the Egon Schiele museum and bought a framed poster of one of his incredible paintings.

Then, it was a bus ride back to Prague. I didn't miss this one. But maybe I should have.

So what did I learn from all this? I'll start a new post and talk about it.

Update: Pictures are up on Flickr and Facebook (like before, the Facebook album should work for everyone).

Switzerland by the numbers

Pictures are up on Flickr, and also make sure to check out the two videos I posted on YouTube (especially the one of Dan falling off a sled). Rather than tell you every detail of what happened over the weekend, I thought I'd keep it to the essential facts.

60 - amount, in Swiss Francs, I won playing blackjack at the casino in Interlaken on Thursday night.
130 - amount Dan won
2 - number of minutes we stayed there after we realized we had won money (we were very proud of our self-control).

10 - number of feet we could see in front of ourselves while sledding (yes! Sledding in the Swiss Alps!) on Friday. We went with Kristen, the girl who was staying in our room as she travels Europe alone for 2 months.

3 - number of new friends we have from Liverpool
about 12 - number of words I actually understood when they spoke to us (in English...I think).

3 - number of falls Dan had while skiing on Saturday, out of more than 15, that were so dramatic, traumatic, and terrifying that we had specific names by which to call them:

....The One Where Dan Fell off a Cliff
Dan has trouble stopping on skis. So, when I told him I thought he'd be fine doing some harder runs, he agreed to try them. We both quickly learned we were wrong. On this occasion, early in the day, he sped off in front of me so far that I couldn't see him any more. I got to a convenient stopping point where I figured he had probably purposely fallen to stop...but didn't find him. So I went on to the bottom of the slope, thinking he might be waiting there. No sign of him. I started panicking. We hadn't set a meeting point in case we got separated, and it was quite clear to me that he wouldn't have made it to a meeting point anyways because he had obviously fallen off a cliff and was dead and it was my fault. I took a chair lift back toward the top of the mountain so I could get a birds-eye view of the slope. For five minutes, no sign of him. Then, a lump of clothing lying on the side of a trail suddenly looked familiar! "DAN!!!" I shouted, with relief! "Yeah..." He responded, in pain. Turns out he had spun off the course into a ditch, and his skis and poles were 25 feet behind him.

....The One Where He Hit the Fence
Right after I finally caught up to him, we continued down the slope, headed for easier trails. But alas, Dan could still not stop and started speeding down again, only to fall at a convenient point - he flipped through the air a few times, finally crashing his thigh into a fence post and landing in a ditch. When he got up, he said he was having trouble seeing.

....The One Where He Almost Died
He gained some confidence. We realized his boots had been unstrapped the entire time, giving him almost no control over his skis. So, I thought, let's try another tougher one. We went up this terrible kind of lift thing where you have to stand the entire time, only to find ourselves at the top of another peak, in a dense fog. Dan was terrified. But there was really no other way down (if it was a real chairlift, he could have taken that back down). So we started, slowly, making our way down the slope, when it took a sudden drop (which surprised me so much that I fell too). Dan, unable to slow himself down but committed to staying standing, sped down the hill at what had to be 45mph, finally beginning to fall at the top of another drop. He slipped out of my sight. When I found him again, he was lying on the ground at the bottom of this steep part, his equipment scattered on the hill above him: first a ski, then a hat and goggles, a pole, another ski, a pole. He had done three front handsprings before finally coming to a halt, his shirt bunched up in his jacket and his body covered with snow.

1:00am - time at which we thought check-in closed for our hostel in Geneva, which we had to get to on Saturday night so we could catch our early flight
3 - number of minutes it took for us to rush to the other side of Interlaken, only to find out that the train we had to catch in order for us to make it on time was actually a bus and had left without us. We caught a later train and had some peace, thanks to Mom, who found out the place was actually open 24hrs.

10 - minutes I spent talking to Gonzalo, a random Portuguese guy with whom I struck up a conversation at the end of the train ride (he was VERY inebriated). When he heard we were American, he started naming American DJs...none of which I've heard of. So our conversation essentially consisted of "You know Carl Cox?" "No, sorry man" "Oh he's..." etc etc etc. He asked for my phone number, and instead of giving it to him, I got his.

8 - amount of time, in hours, we spent at the Geneva Youth Hostel on Saturday night.
9 - amount of time, in hours, that actually elapsed during that period as a result of Europe's change to "summer time." We didn't miss our flight, don't worry.

5 - number of days, including today, we were in Switzerland
2 - number of showers I took. There was no way I was showering at the Geneva hostel, and we didn't have a room where I could shower after we skied. So I was just gross until this afternoon. Pleasant, ain't it?

Der bloggen!

Ya! Dan and I are taking a break from the day, relaxing in the hostel, so I thought I'd take advantge of he free internet and tell you all about it.

I'm writing this from the Funny Farm hostel in Interlaken, a fantastic place for me and Dan to spend a few nights. The hostel is in a refurbished old hotel, so the rooms are outstanding, and just like in Krakow, the lobby is a lively place filled with music and constant activity. We even got a free upgrade to a 4-person! Our only roomate is from Colorado. And she's a girl.

Interlaken itself ranks amongst the most beautiful places I've ever seen. It sits between two lakes (inter...laken) and is surrounded by the towering Swiss alps, over 2000m high. Everything is covered in a fresh snow from earlier this week

This is in quite stark contrast to our experience in Geneva. Also a beautiful place, don't get me wrong. But really, all that's there are watch stores (hundreds) and banks (THOUSANDS). Our hostel also wasn't the best place. It was much bigger than any I've stayed in, and much more industrial...no way to really get to know anyone. It was billed as a youth hostel, but there were still many awkwardly old people staying there...including one about 50 year old in our room who might be considering a career in competitive snoring. Dad, this guy is your idol - seeming to find the resonant frequency of the room, he literally shook the whole thing.

But all was not lost in this land of middle aged business men and empty restaurants at 6pm. Dan and I struck up a conversation with an Aussie named Chris, and the three of us went up the street to an Irish pub where, it seemed, the entire population of the city was spending their evening. Chris, as it turned out, was staying in our room too, and his personality was the amicable one Lisa always talks about Aussies having. We had a great time.

After my sleepless night, our train left for Interlaken at 9am. At 1230, we were at our hostel. At 2:00, we ate lunch. At 3:00, Dan and I were about 2100 feet off the ground, attached to parachutes and guides. Paragliding is awesome. As I landed, my pilot (a fifteen year professional) had a first --- our parachute got caught in a tree! Many many pictures to come on Flickr, and a video of Dan's takeoff too.

I need a nap.

It's snowing again

Just like in Chicago, I guess Prague gets one or two days of snow toward the beginning of spring. At least I'm not having my Bar Mitzvah this weekend.

It's been a fun filled last 24 hours! The show went very well again last night, with a sizable crowd in attendance. They announced the contest winners after the show (an audience award and the main writing contest)...and we didn't win anything. Oh well.

The real fun came after the show, when The Prague Post hosted a gala in the bar area of the theater, complete with open bar(!), fresh boar with horseradish and mustard, and a massive set-up of ridiculous desserts. Dan and I were having a field day, and not just with the food - I've spoken before about how awesome it's been to get to know the English-speaking expat community here, and that's only gotten better. Last night became one massive exercise in networking. We began with an introduction to Mirka, one of the three top casting agents in Prague, who hadn't seen our play but was incredibly enthusiastic about having us come to her office so she could take our photos. She was sure we could "work together." Then, there was the lovely woman we struck up a conversation with who, it turns out, is the director of operations for the Prague Post. Everyone we meet tells me and Dan two things - we have a fantastic on-stage chemistry, and we should definitely use that somehow. We've been told the first part before, but this is the first time people have told us that we could find success exploiting our relationship.

All this is a long way of saying that Dan is almost definitely going to be staying here through the summer. To be honest, if I didn't have anything to come home to, I'd stay here too. Hell, the two of us might still come back here after college and just write and act. Who knows?

For a while last night it didn't look like I was going to be able to get up this morning for my scheduled tour with Tomas of Czech Television. (Sidenote: I had a dream that I got a hair cut, and in the dream I was SO happy. A sign?) But I managed it, and I'm incredibly happy I did. Czech media was developed under communism, of course, and so there are now only three networks here: Nova, Prima, and the state-owned Czech TV (it works like the BBC, with two public access channels and a few cable/satellite channels). The complex that houses all of its production is not very far from our house, and it is HUGE (apparently they employ 3000 people). Tomas took me through all the most interesting sites of the place, including their big studios (looks just like the US), multiple cafeterias (seriously I was struck by how many there were), and lines of offices.

What was new to me was the area they call "dubbing street," which is an entire building wing dedicated to all the different processes for dubbing media into Czech. Lots of ADR studios, of course. One friend of Tomas's, upon hearing that I study in Los Angeles, quipped "so this is like a museum to you!" Not quite. But admittedly, it was really impressive to see Tomas sit down to start work on a dub for a BBC documentary in front of a Tesla mixer from probably the late 70s, and with no ProTools set up in sight. Tomas's job during production is a really cool one - as producer, he coaches the actors and makes sure the timing for their announcing complements the images. Neat.

Rest of the day has been relaxing and prepping to leave tomorrow. It's gonna be one helluva week, I'm sure. There will be lots of photos to peruse, and I'm gonna try to do some blogging from there as well to avoid one huge post when I get back. Who wants chocolate???

More trips, more lazy days

Yesterday was a great day. Class was fine, but the best idea I've ever had was ditching most of them - I had to miss my last two for rehearsal anyhow, and I needed a nap. Rehearsals have been frustrating, mostly because we're still stopping every two seconds and the whole thing feels so slow and not funny. Thankfully, that finally changed last night, when we had a great run.

I really wanted to go nuts last night, but I unfortunately have this love/hate relationship with my producing class (my other class today was canceled). I love the class, but I hate waking up at 7am to go to it. So I left Dan and his friends to get home early enough to wake up and go to this class. Dan had a great night.

Today I booked my last trip. From May 13-18, I'll be spending five days alone on Croatia's Dalmatian Coast (Split, then Dubrovnik, with maybe an island in between), before flying back to Prague for one last (I'm sure fun-filled) night before my whirlwind trip back to Chicago and then LA (Prague-London-Chicago on 5/19, Chicago-LA in time for class on 5/21). I'm having trouble booking a hostel in both places, but I'm figuring it'll be warm enough for me to sleep on the street anyways....I'm sure the highlight of the trip (besides walking down beaches, laying in the sun, and swimming in what's supposed to be the best water in the Mediterranean) will be my planned visit to the Plitvice Lakes National Park - supposedly one of the most beautiful places on earth. Not to mention, it'll be nice to have a bunch of time to myself before I start what could be the most intense summer to date.

In news from the home front, I feel obliged to mention the USC Free Culture group's successful protest of USC's Free Speech Zone. Not only did their peaceful protest get some heads turning, but they even got fined by the University for their placement of fliers in "non-designated" areas. Read their response to the fine here.

That's all for now. Lost is almost finished downloading.

How did this week go by so fast?

Honestly, where does the time go?

Somehow in the course of my insane weekend, I forgot that Taryn was coming to visit on Monday! So Monday was fun - class, rehearsal (where Dan and I finally spoke up and kinda really took over directing for a while...), and then a glorious reunion at night! We went to a wine bar near Karlovo Namesti (...that means nothing to you, I just realized) that was really awesome. Except I had forgotten my keys at home. So I went home early and woke up Jonas, who was nice enough to let me in. That guy rules.

Tuesday was so far my favorite day of the week, though. I've been stressing a bit lately about where I'm going to go for my spring break (in two weeks). My attempts to join onto other groups of people have thus far been unsuccessful...and to be honest, there was always at least one person in any group I asked about that I didn't really want to spend that much time with. It finally occurred to me, though, that I couldn't leave until after the play is done...and Dan has 5 days off every week.

So Dan and I began searching our asses off for somewhere to go. Croatia was our first choice, but that proved way too expensive for a 5 day trip (though it's cheaper if you fly out of Bratislava, Slovakia. But get this - that would mean a 5hr train ride to Bratislava to catch a flight, then a short flight with a layover IN PRAGUE. Annoying!). So, we started to look at what was cheap. The result: Dan and I are spending five days in beautiful Switzerland (the flight was less than $100!). Geneva first, followed by two nights in Interlaken, where we'll do a bunch of outdoors-y stuff that my sister would be proud of me for - canyoning, bungee jumping, skydiving...

Tuesday was a day of walking around Prague with Taryn (in the rain...weather here has been really gross lately, cold and rainy), booking that trip, and dinner/walking around Prague more with Taryn. In the process, we found Bakeshop Praha, and my life has not been the same since....It was amazing seeing Taryn; I think I'm going to try to get to Aix (southern France) before I leave.

Wednesday was busy busy busy as ever, though it included a fantastic lunch grabbed from one of my new favorite restaurants, Paneria (a chain of baguetteries around here). And last night, I was informed of the success of IEC's first concert, which has had me flying high ever since.

Today has been uneventful. Early class this morning was tough to get up for, though my breakfasting included a memorable conversation with Jonas.

J:...and they have a big wan.
E: A big what?
J: Wan. A car.
E: Oh, a vvvvvvvaaaaaannnnnn.
J (laughs): Yes, a wan.
E: I think it's really interesting how even Czechs who speak English really well have trouble saying "vvvvvv."
J: I'm saying it wrong?

Tonight, I'm going with the family to see Tomas's nephew (I think...) and his wife play in a band at a gallery opening. Sounds fun!

A sidenote: I signed up for a Google Analytics account for this page, so I can track how many visitors I get and where they're coming from. The results have been really interesting - 50% of the people visiting this blog in the past week are new! I can see dots on the world map from Boca Raton (Hi Poppy!) and random places all over SoCal. Craziness - I even have a reader in Beijing! Which might call for an experiment - if I bash Communism and US-China relations, do you think Chinese people will still be able to read this? Just a thought...

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.