It hit me

That sinking feeling in your stomach when suddenly you realize the general feeling you have about the things that happen around you is about to change. I don't know if this happens to anyone else, but for some reason, no matter how hard I try not to feel it, this always happens to me. And I don't think it's the change that bothers me so much, but rather the lack of routine that comes in the transition periods (I am a massive creature of habit). So when I woke up from my nap with my heart pounding (as I've been doing the past few days for some reason) and thought about the fact that I don't have to go to class any more...it just hit me. I'm gone.

It was that feeling combined with this sudden longing for people around me to keep me sane, not thinking about ridiculous things like that. Dan leaves today for Budapest, so I feel like I've sort of finally lost that safety net I've taken advantage of this entire semester. Which is why it was nice to leave my room and start talking to Zuzana and Tomaš again. In an unfortunate twist of fate, Jonaš left this afternoon for a trip with his school, and might not be back here next week when I spend my last night in Prague. So I may never see him again.

But let's face it, I probably will. More on that in a bit.

Today goes down in history as one of the more interesting days of my life. I slept very little last night (it was as big a night as expected), but managed to get up, shower, and dress well (if I may say so) for our graduation ceremony. The debate was relatively interesting, and I got to give a speech at the end announcing the winner, which was pretty well-received. Of course the amazing part of this was looking out at all my new friends and realizing that all of them were having ridiculously foggy mornings themselves...

We progressed to another hall for the distribution of diplomas (a painful process. They called everyone's names. It took an hour. We were starving). Then it was time for the highlight of the day, a lunch cruise down the Vltava for two hours. It really was a perfect way to end this whole thing, forcing all of us to just be in one place for two hours, and to make it a place that lends itself to reflection and all that mushy stuff.

No one cried. We were all smiles. The boat took us under the Charles bridge, past the castle, through a lock, past Vyšehrad, and back again, and the whole time we all just munched on free food, talked, and took pictures. The one up there might prove to be one of my favorites of all time - Jon managed to wrangle up our entire Czech class (minus a few) and get us to pose with Dana and Bara, our teacher from the intensive course. We all just look so happy.

Afterwards, against my better judgment because I was exhausted, I went with a small group up to Letna Park, a place I haven't visited yet, to find a beer garden. It was a nice walk, and we whiled away an hour, just chatting in the soft breeze with the entire city we've all come to call home gazing back at us from over the river. It's so fun to get onto a hill here, because the entire city center is so flat that you can see it like it's a map. There's Florenc, where I missed the bus. And Old Town square. Beyond that, Charles Square, where Dan lives. Of course you can't miss the TV Tower, and its companion, the Žižka monument. And off in the distance, the center of it all for us, the two towers of Vyšehrad looking back with, believe it or not, seemingly proud eyes.

When I came here, I never thought it would be this way. I didn't expect this kind of a connection to this place. But this old crone has claws.

Tomorrow I'm packing up everything and enjoying the city one last time. Stephanie's still here, so I'll be hanging out with her too probably. For the first time I'm starting to see how much I'll miss this place.

It's still light outside

Spring has most certainly sprung now, since the clocks changed. I'm completely thrown off by how late the sun is out! It makes me feel guilty for being at home, inside. I'm going to start carrying a book around with me so I can always stop in a park and do some reading whenever I find myself with nothing to do (I'm trying to read more books. I feel like I don't have time to read for pleasure at home).

Which is exactly what happened today. Class ended at five and the sun was still bright in the sky, so I took a walk around the Vysehrad area and found myself gazing, once again, over this fantastic city. I love how familiar the skyline looks now - between my Art and Architecture of Prague class and my own sightseeing, I've managed to get at least a little background on almost all of the most prominent buildings. That familiarity that was missing at the beginning of this trip? Well, when I got off the plane yesterday and took the bus back into the city, I suddenly felt at home, relieved to be not understanding Czech again (as opposed to not understanding French and German). Guess I'm familiar now.

Another sign of this: Zuzana's cooking dinner right now, and told me we'd make garlic mashed potatoes again, like last time. I said "but Tomas didn't like them!" And she replied "he'll have the plain ones, we'll have the garlic" and smiled in that sneaky way mothers do that seems to say ain't he boring?? Familiarity and family. And I'm thousands of miles from home. (Or am I? Oh now I'm going back to a very old argument of mine...)

The warmer weather reminds me even more of home, as in Northbrook home. I'm remembering how much I always loved that first day of warm weather in high school, the first day when you could take off your jacket on your way to your car and leave the windows open while you drove home, music loud, drumming on the steering wheel. And around Vysehrad today, there was a smell of a grill coming from a restaurant that to me could only mean Memorial Day or July 4th.

I love this time of year, if you can't tell, and I'm excited to spend it here. This weekend I'm traveling with my program to southern Bohemia, a town (and UNESCO World Heritage site) called česky Krumlov. The next weekend, Dan and I hit Amsterdam. And then, before I know it, my parents are visiting and we're driving to Budapest. With less than two months remaining here, I'm just excited to let it all happen!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Kiss 'em if ya got 'em!

I should start with Monday night, when we had our first rehearsal for this play. As expected, it was a completely surreal experience being in a rehearsal with Dan and not being at GBN or in his basement or in my living room. The director is a nice guy; he's originally from North Carolina (and still has that fantastic accent, one of my favorites in the US), and he's been living in Prague for the past year working on assorted films (some major, in the SFX dept), but he'd like to get out of here soon. He's taking this whole thing more seriously than I (or Dan) had expected, which might get annoying since I certainly am not.

The script is pretty good (I might have mentioned that before), and it was fun getting it on its feet. Dan and I both have to make out with women significantly older than us, though my nearly-forty-year-old British woman definitely takes the cake. Dan's "wife" reminds us a lot of Natalie Boccumini.

I started running a fever during rehearsal, came home and slept, and you know all about yesterday (except that I watched Lost last night! A great episode!).

Which brings us to today. This holiday is very different in Prague, and not just for the expected reasons. Of course, everything people say about this holiday in the US is true: it's not even a big deal holiday, but gift/greeting card/candy companies have managed to make us believe it is (but is it so bad to have a holiday about love?). But there's more to it.

My study center (where my non-film classes are held) sits on the site of the magnificent Vyšehrad castle, site of several former Prague Kings and of course, home to a magnificent cathedral (which they light up at night like the Empire State Building). Apparently, every cathedral in CR (or maybe the world? not sure...) holds the remains of a particular saint (not necessarily the saint to whom the place is consecrated), and those remains are taken out and put on display one day every year.

So today, about 20 feet east of my classes, the remains of St. Valentine himself were on display all day. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to check it out, but it's definitely put a new spin on this holiday!

Today was the usual busy, lunch-less Wednesday, including my least favorite class, but ending with a great surprise. The one class that was canceled last week seems like it's going to be awesome. The prof told us all we were going to do was watch and talk about "non-Hollywood" European films. We started today with a Godard film, which I really loved and would never have watched otherwise, so I was very happy.

All of my classes were canceled tomorrow (love it), so I'll probably spend the whole day sleeping or walking around while it's still nice out (the weather here has been really strange lately...sunny and amazing until about 6pm, then rain all night). Or maybe I'll do homework. Meh, maybe not.