czech hospitality

so yesterday was a national holiday, something about st. wenseslas, they're all about him here. so i was taking my friends kate and katie to find this soup shop that was amazing. i discovered it at the flea market last weekend, you know the chicken soup which tasted like pho. so we go to this sorta sketchy part of town, praha 8, and the place was closed : ( so we get back on the train bound for svichova (a traditional czech meal with pieces of pork covered in pumpkin soup tasting stuff with some whip cream and cranberries and sweet dumplings on the side. so we were sitting on the tram just talking amongst ourselves and there were two preteen girls behind up staring and giggling. and then out of no where the woman who was sitting on the other side of the isle gets up and spits in between us at our feet and then sits back down like 4 ft away. it was so shocking we just stopped talking and stared mouth agape at each other. that turned into confused and nervous laughter and then at the next stop we got off. i looked at her as we left and she stuck her foot out almost as if to kick me but her foot just sort of grazed my leg. the two girls who were sitting behind us flipped us the finger as the tram pulled away. we were shocked and confused and it was the only thing we could talk about for the whole rest of the day. it must of been some combination of us talking and laughing and being american which was not well received on that particular tram. but at least we still have our sense of humor.
katie: "she's just mad cause we're having the time of our lives and she has cataracts."

best sick day ever.

It's been perfectly dreary here the last couple of days. Not cold but constantly sort of drizzling. Yesterday we went over to some girls' huuuuge apartment and one of them wasn't feeling well so she was gonna lay in her queen sized bed with her wrinkled comforter and tall double hinged window and watch gone with the wind. Deep down I was a little bit jealous, and so low and behold! On account-a taking a bite of my sick friend's hamburger and having nothing but a sleeve of chips and beer for dinner (while watching riff tracks for Twilight btw, hilarious you should see it!)the other night, today I am not feeling so hot.
I've done nothing but what I want to do which was lay on the couch and watch TV, admittedly I would prefer the watch something in English, it's actually very frustrating 'cause I can't get anything to stream on my computer, not even Spongebob! How am I suppose to keep current with all his antics?!
Anyways fortunately I live in an awesome neighborhood and today's big outing consisted of walking across the roundabout to Zanzibar cafe for some "honey drink" which is hot water lemon and honey and some sort of cake deely (see attached map and picture). Yesterday there was a flee market at Namesti Miru and the surrounding streets. It was so perfectly Portland, like a European equivalent to the farmer's market in the park blocks. It was raining but warm like and there was some folk band, and swing dancers, and brownies, and oatmeal cookies, and this DELICIOUS chicken soup with cilantro in it which made it taste like pho. I got some earrings (also see attached doodle) and then we went shoe shopping. Always searching, ever alert for the perfect pair of boots. Boots found! But out of my price range (see vagabond.com for everything my heart could desire).
I've been wandering by myself a lot lately, one of my favorite wanders brought me to Frank Gehry's "Dancing House" at sunset. So I bought a margarita so that I could go to the roof terrace. It was awesome. Giant ball of mesh to top off your building? Why not?
I also went to an exhibit at the contemporary art museum of Czech architect Jan Kaplicky which was amazing. Being there made me realize how imaginative I used to be and how strongly I want to resurrect that. I'm pretty certain that I'm a lot more passionate about architecture than film, but that doesn't mean I'm going to stop pursuing film. It just might mean I'm taking the easy way out...
Anyways enjoy the pictures.
I apologize for the extra long entry this time, but I made it up to you with actual correct capitalization and spelling. You're welcome.

potato pancakes

so i love the food here. everything is deep fried=heaven! and beer is usually cheaper or the same price as water, they don't ever serve tap water.
the other night we went to a bar for fried food and beer and i ended up getting a plate of fried cheese which was crazy cause i was just eating it with a fork and then i pictured it without the batter and i was essentially just digging into a slice of brie and there were two other pieces of some other cheese which were roughly the size of my hand.
we went to the "opera" yesterday which wasn't really an opera but just a really bad musical theater piece which was all in czech but the building was cool.
and i met with my one-one guy who i volunteered to speak english with. i was super nervous as i am about anything i'm unfamiliar with but it was really cool. he's a 30 year old professional dancer who now manages a dance group (called dance to excess). he had just gotten back from holiday in spain with his boyfriend and he's totally normal and not freaky at all and he bought me coffee and cake=bffl
so after that i was really relieved and happy and i wandered around the wine festival which was now being held in the square by my house (see picture of cathedral below, the square is called Namesti Miru which means peace square). and i bought a bunch of earings there...and i like them alot.
********
i left halfway threw this and i found myself at another wine festival, also near my house which is in this park! which is also sort of a vineyard! i'm so glad i found this place, i'm gonna go there all the time. there's an awesome view and lots of grass and tress ah. unfortunately i left my camera here since i was uploading pictures but you can use your imagination.

inside my room

ruminating

walking to school yesterday it struck me how easy and familiar life here seems already, but in a bizarre sort of surreal way. it's almost as if i just changed the channel and everything about my life changed without me really trying. all i had to do was get on a plane, and poof here's your new apartment and friends and classes and classmates and roommates and streets...
it's all different but i still feel the same sense comfort, excitement and anxiety.
this is a bad thing because a large part of why i decided to come here was to shake up my life so i wouldn't feel so...like this.
this just proves that a change of location doesn't necessarily mean a lifestyle change. so i'm going to start volunteering at this graphic design firm off in the boonies (prague 10) and having conversations with this czech fellow that the program set me up with, he's in his 30's and is a professional actor/model/dancer.
on top of all this i'm really starting to miss people and places such as nw 23rd, and that section of 13th by weiden and kennedy. i even went into a bathroom the other day which smelled soapy and reminded my of caty's cabin. i miss that too.

perspective is a bitch

last night i went over some other girls from the program's apartment. It was basically a loft apartment right out of an ikea magazine, and i was all wtf. they had slanted ceilings in the living room with sunroofs which you could open and look out over the buildings and see that weird baby crawling sculpture. you'll notice that i didn't put up any pictures of the interior of my apartment cause it's just not that cool. apparently some other girls live in a penthouse, but thats cool. at least i have a comfortable bed and a room to myself, unless my drunk friends sleep over, which is most of the time so far.
today we went to some castle and there was a wine festival going on concurrently so afterwards i bought a jug of barcek which is like freshly fermented wine which is sweet and kind of carbonated, and i sat in the garden and sketched. it was pretty cool.
tonight martha and i are going to see delicatesen (a french movie) with an interest group from school. we've been so busy, there are always activities going on and its a lot of fun but it's getting a little grating. i'm also starting to feel a little bit claustrophobic in this city, its a lot bigger and tighter than portland. i miss nature.

apt pics

meh

tonight was meh, but last night was cool. we went to karaoke and i tried to sing bad romance but the dj must of hated me cause he never played it.
tonight i drank chardonnay out of a tea cup cause it was the only clean cup in my kitchen. then we played find katie wherein we went around the city trying to track down my friend katie.
anywho, i now present pictures of my residence:

Czech is hard

Had a good day. Started Czech intensive school today which SUCKS! I forgot how much I hated language classes. I just want to know it already.
But thennnnn, I went to a pub with my new friends and then we went and got food and made said food at my friend's homestay home and met her "mother" (Andrea) and "little brother"/Justin Beiber look alike (Simon, pronounced Shimon).
All together it was pretty awesome.
I'm in my apt. and we're stealing internet from the cafe Zanzibar across the way, it's pretty spotty though.
It 1am and I need to wake up at 8.
Good night.

"lucky" again

Just like my mother I always end up in situations living by myself accidentally. The girl in my room moved out a couple days ago, she we to live with her friends from Georgetown in the dorms. There are so many kids here from Georgetown. There's a lot of American's in Prague but in different programs. There's one for NYU and something else too.
The last couple nights I stayed out till around 4am and then slept 'til noon the next day but tomorrow we start our intensive czech course so i'm a little concerned that I won't be able to get to sleep tonight.
We went back to the place called Cross Club which is so cool, but impossible to navigate. There's all these moving mechanical things inside and all these different rooms that look vaguely similar and there is a central staircase which is literally like a labyrinth. The night before we went to Lucenrna which was having an 80's 90's night. I forgot how much I missed 90's music. All of the CIEE kids who were there took up the whole stage.
Prague castle is soooo coool. Went there yesterday for a wine tasting. I think we'll get a tour later this week.
We went on a boat tour on Friday, it was like a "welcome dinner" or some such.
Still no internet in apartment. But hey, at least now I can leave my clothes all over the place.

more photos

the metro station:
^view from our window

picture time?

this is my hotel room with emily

No battery power!!!

oh dear, i am at the internet cafe with my czech flat buddie, Simona, and i just realized that i didn't bring the converter for my charger and i also probably have to buy a power converter....
anywho i'll make this fast, which i shame cause i actually have good things to say finally. and picture to boot!
you'll just have to use your imagination.
so i'm here, but you got that. first day was weird. very much like birthright. i took a cab to the hotel where everyone met. it was a sweet hotel but it was weird being mixed up with a bunch of strangers my age along with czech strangers my age (like the israeli soldiers) who feel kinda like camp couselars cause they're helping us so much.
so then we went to our appartments, which are pretty cute, like my appartment last term but bigger, taller ceilings and big doors but kinda run down. it's in a cool part of town though. right by a big old church.
prague looks like a campier version of paris.
so then we went to school, which is cool, just like an old building with only classes for american kids in this program.
oh my roomates are simona and emily (from new jersey goes to colorado u, and andrea lee who goes to georgetown and is from maryland). i feel more of a culture shock from the east coast kids than i do from czech people.
east coast kids wear silly bands (weird plastic bracelets that make shapes when you take them off), and all the kids in the program are rich! which i guess makes sense concidering. it's hard for me not to judge them for it, but i'm trying.
ok well ii'm afraid my computer will die soon, so i'll post this just in cases and then try to show you some pictures