Jessica in Prague

Ahoy!

Well.. I did something touristy this weekend, along with roughly 1000 other people. Heather (from CA) and I went and ate Mexican food at this restaurant down Ujezd street from Bohemia Bagel called Cantina (yeah I know, I can't seem to get away from BB!). Pretty good food, kinda pricey, but finally got my chips and salsa!

Anywho, across the street is the funicular (yes that's the word, shut up) entrance up Petrin Hill. What's up there, you ask? Well, there's a lovely little park area, with statues and benches, just like back in the states. There's also this little mirror maze, which I've yet to go in, costs 40kc, I think. Best of all is the Eiffel Tower. They have a short replica of the tower that, if you take in the size of the hill, the tippiest top of the tower, and kinda let a few inches slide, it's the same size as the real one! Plus it only costs 40 kc (if you're a student) to walk up to the top for a good view. Again, didn't do that b/c I thought I'd wait until my peeps show up. Apparently, there's a neat little stone walkway/hill that when it gets iced over, is real fun to slide down. After walking around for roughly 20 minutes (it was really really cold) we went back down the hill in the funicular, taking all the good touristy shots we could. BTW, it costs 20kc, both ways, to ride the funicular, unless you already have a transportation pass, which I did. Then it's FREE! I love that word.


After that we got chocolate cake and hot chocolate (yes that WAS too much chocolate at once, blech), and went back to the dorm. That was Saturday. Sunday we just went and got Chinese in our favorite little place off Wencenslas Square and got an ice cream cone at McDonalds... though I'm not counting it as an actual McDonalds trip.

Today I basically just had my two classes and walked around some... trying to figure out prices to trips to Paris. My history class is great because he'll say something and then point out the window and say "the second defenestration of Prague took place in that building there, (points) and they threw him out of that window there, (points some more). Afterwards, they all met up in this building downstairs and wrote up a draft constitution and took it over to that Kinko's there" (still paying attention.. cuz that was a joke). Only in Prague, eh?

BTW, the title is from a Bob and Tom song "toast"... yeah, you know it. Talk to you later!

Just letting y'all know that I'm not dead. Sadly, I've done very little in the last week that would warrant a blog... thus, no blog.

On Tuesday, I celebrated our one-month (of being here) anniversary with my roomie, Mary, and Jamie. Mandy and I split a brownie... awww. We went out to Bohemia Bagel yet again.

Wednesday, went out to an Indie/Emo club Soho(?) at night. Free wine for the ladies and what not. Got there around 10:45. Grabbed a glass of wine. Went to use the WC. Pulling up my pants, and the power went out. We waited for roughly 20 minutes in the dark-ish (all the Brits had cell phones... they make nice little flashlights). Then they offered everyone free shots of vodka (I did not partake... ewww) and apologized to everyone, and we left. That was around 11:45. See, even when I finally do go out and party... it ends badly. Sigh.

Thursday, went and saw Jarheads (Marinak) with Mary and Laura... very good movie and now know how to say the f-word in Czech. I now have the Kanye West song "Jesus Walks" constantly running through my head. Ooh! Did laundry too, everything turned out fine.

Today, wandered around with Heather and Hilary (who's actually from Las Vegas, not New York, oops!). Hilary got her ear pierced... not a normal one, but a cool one, hard to explain. Don't worry mom, I didn't get anything pierced!!

Anyway, that's about all on this end... now you can see why I haven't written... nothing to say. My trips are coming up soon, and hopefully I'll be able to write more. Unfortunately... for about three weeks I'm going to be gone almost the entire time... so I don't know how often I'll be able to update this for y'all. Write again when something interesting happens! Til then... Au Revoir... or whatever.

(Hi, this is Jess's T.A. (Brian), assisting with some new multi-media posting. Check out the movie below for a touching, heartfelt tour of Old Town Square with our favorite exchange student.)

Sorry it's been so long, but all my connections, computer-wise, were off in Venice, Berlin, or Krakow. Me, I stayed home...

Anyway, up-to-date: Saturday, Hilary (I think from New York, she's a trip!), Mandy, and I went on a long tour of Prague Castle. The way it works is you can either pay for all the sights inside individually, or buy a big group package to see lots , if not all, at once. You also "need" to buy a photo license in order to take pictures, but no one ever carded us and I took plenty of pics without paying (baaaaaad Jessi). The thing is, the Castle grounds are free.. and almost the best part. The cathedral (I want to say St. Vitus), is free to go in part way, but if you want to go all the way to the back, or down to the Royal Crypt (not really worth it), you need to pay. But you can see enough of the church just wakjing in, it's really pretty. We all paid for the biggest tour, 250kc maybe, but with our student discount it was 175... still not totally worth it. We got to go all the way into the Church, the Crypt, the Old Royal Palace (kinda dull, but good views at the top, defenestration room, which is another way of saying the room they use to chuck crappy kings and rulers out of), the National Gallery (which is worth paying for, unfortunately by the time we got to it, we were all tired and hungry so we didn't see much), the Powder Tower (not tall enough for a good view of anything and all it contains are little minature soldier things and a grotesque representation of medieval surgeries, or something), Golden Lane (a cute little mini-type town where all the king's snipers once lived and now contains a crap-ton of souveneir shops... very "quaint"), and that was about it. I'd pay to go into the National Gallery, and maybe the Royal Palace, but all the other worthwhile stuff is free. GO on a dry day so that when you get to the cathedral, you can lay down on the ground to get a good picture.


Yesterday I went souveneir shopping, for people other than me! So some of you may actually get stuff, although my warm presence back home should be quite enough. I've received one package since I've been here... now I'm spoiled and want more... but it's super expensive to send stuff. It only took about 6 days for it to get here, so if you do send things internationally, it shouldn't take too long, in general.

Today, I did doodely-squat.. everyone came home from their respective trips and it is no longer quiet in the dorms. Oh well. Oh! Squoze! So Mandy and I are writing in our journals last night when she looks up and asks me how to spell squoze.. I said "what?" she replies, "squoze, you know, the past tense of squeeze?" Well, this launched a ten minute debate into the legitamacy of the word squoze. We tracked someone down in the dorm who had a computer and they looked it up online for us. It's not on dictionary.com... but it is apparently a word, albeit an archaic one that is very rarely used except for those of the Idahoan persuasion. Whoda thunk? So, we may bring it back, the two of us, this lovely word squoze. Go ahead, try it out, it's pronounced like it's spelled, rhymes with chose. Ain't it lovely? Ah, Idahoans, such a funny people.... I love them all!

No, seriously... Okay yesterday Heather and I ate at a chinese restaurant that was super cheap. It was great. Afterwards, we wandered around and took some pictures of the Dancing Building a.k.a. the Fred and Ginger Building a.k.a. the funky warped place. We went and got a brownie and chocolate cheesecake at Bohemia Bagel... yummy!

Later that night we made our way to softball practice!! It was way out in boofoo. We had to take a tram, metro, and a bus, then walk a ways. This was at 8 at night too. We thought we were lost the whole time. But we made it and we actually had fun! Some of the girls speak english, but they're all really nice. It just felt nice to throw a ball and swing a bat... even if it was just drills, no actual playing. They don't start their season until the end of April, but they said it was fine that we practice with them... they even let us borrow their gloves! It'll be nice to work out my arms and abs as well as my legs. Afterwards, we we're wondering about a ride home (practice ended at 10) when we realized that two of the girls' cars had been broken into! Nothing was stolen, just damage done. We waited for the police to come, file a report, etc. Then we finally got in a car!!!! FUN! They drive crazy here! And I woke up sore, YAY!

So today, Mandy, Heather and I wandered around Old Town Square, which I have to say is my fave place so far. I took a video with some sound and I'll see if I can upload it, just gotta confer with my TA. Anyway, went shopping for clothes I don't need, got another pair of gloves and a hat (BTW my scarf that Elise was making for me is done and it's so cute and warm!). If you think any of you are getting souveniers you can just forget it because I'm spending all my mulah on me! Later, Mandy and I went and saw Pride and Prejudice (Pycha a Presudek???) at a theater. English with Czech subtitles b/c I don't think Czech is "big" enough to dub movies in. Then we of course went out for more hot chocolate at Kavarna Slavia. Not as good as Cafe Louvre, but still good.


I ate out for lunch again, but all I had was the traditional Czech meal of goulash with bread dumplings, so good I ate it all and treated myself to some raspberry, white chocolate, and chocolate gelato!! I think that's about it for the last couple days... I thought it was interesting. Everybody else is either in Berlin, Venice, or Krakow, so there aren't many people left in the dorm. Gonna go... talk to you later!

(By the way, here's some more pictures of my room...)

Yes yes, it's been awhile, I apologize. I'll explain the title in a bit.

Water's back and everything's gravy. Not the water, the situation.. nevermind. Sunday was pretty uneventful, went and got pizza and bought a calling card (5 1/2 hours for $40!). Monday was almost as bad because I was exhausted after class and slept most of the day. At night, Mary, Amaanda, Lindsay, Wendy, Jamie, Elise, Laura, Mandy, and I all went to the 2nd floor Cafe Louvre, different from the 3rd floor. There they have flavored hot chocolate you eat with a spoon!! I had chocolate raspberry, but the orange cinnamon was really good too, we all tried each other's. It was a nice girl's night out, and it was really warm too, coat open, no gloves, no hat!

Yesterday Mandy, Mary, Jamie and I went out to eat for V-Day. I had pork roast with garlic butter, and a hot cherry strudel, yummy!! That's them in the picture: Jamie, Mandy, than Mary, we were all pretty full. That's me being my usual serious self.


My roomie discovered something here: vanilla flavored sugar... better than crack cocaine... not that I'd know. They also have cinnamon flavored sugar, but I've yet to try that one.

Today we just renewed our transportation passes and put a deposit down on our Venice and Krakow trips... yay exciting! I apologize that I don't have more fun stuff going on, but I've been having tummy aches and feel like crap.

OH chocolate boobies... On the way home from the restaurant on V-Day, the girls and I were passing by a candy store when we came upon this lovely sight... it is a chocolate bust... quite literally. I apologize for the vulgarness of it... but I thought it was hilarious. Hopefully there will be more fun stuff later...Bye!

So yesterday was the day we all saw Don Giovanni at the Stavovske Divadlo. It was also Amaanda's birthday... so let me go in chronological order:

We decided to have birthday lunch at Bohemia Bagel. This place is the best! Kind of expensive, almost all American food without the guilt of going to an American chain restaurant, and pretty healthy stuff. I had a turkey sandwich on a tomato basil bagel. You can get a big bowl of soup with a bagel of your choice and cream cheese (for 25kc extra) all for 55kc... roughly $2!! Their soups are good too. The other day I got a BBQ chicken sandwich with coleslaw and fries... YUM! Anyway...

We walked to the theater from the restaurant... did I mention we have to dress up for these plays and thus are freezing because man has yet to invent warm dress up clothes? Plus I was stupid and wearing only two short sleeve shirts under my dress coat. The theater is really pretty (see pics, one of the stage, one of the balconies where us cheapskates sit, and one of the purty chandelier). I liked this one best because it's blue.

The opera itself... boring. The beginning was slow, and I forgot how much theu repeat themselves in operas: "Swear to me swear to me swear to me, you will revenge his death my love his death his death his death, my love love love, swear to me to me me me his death death death my love me death love swear to me love my my love death swear... death... me... loooooooove" Second verse same as the first. It was three hours long with a twenty minute intermission. I think I'll just stick to musicals and plays from here on out. Plus the Europeans here STINK!!!

Speaking of which, our water is still not up to par. It's working on the first floor alright, so I know a couple of people down there that let us use their showers. We have water, just not hot water, and the shower just trickles. So I think we're looking at roughly 48 hours without good water.... but it's all of Praha 6 I'm told. Our dishes.... all five of them, are dirty, and need washed, but we're too lazy. Oh well, we are all college folk. That's about it for now... write later... BYE!!

Oh today was a blast... Jaime, Wendy, Heather, Mandy and I decided to take a little day trip to Karlštejn. It's a 30 minute train ride outside of Prague to go see Charles IV's summer castle... it looked pretty in the book. Quite the adventure, here goes:

So we all get off at this abandoned looking station in the middle of nowhere (don't worry, there are plenty of pics to go with this story! I just have to email them to Brian and since I heard there's a nasty virus going around, it may be awhile b4 he can put them up here for me.). We all trek up a hill until it dead ends, turn around and return to the station, where we ask directions from a guy sitting on a bus, "Kde je Karylstein Hrad?" Well, apparently we had to go over a bridge, take a left and trek about 3-4km... you guys do the math, it was long to us too. So we walk, and walk, and walk, and we realize we haven't seen any tourists, only a few locals. Oh well, we thought, it's just too cold out for the rest of them suckers.

We finally reach the touristy town after about a half hour, you know, shops and restaurants everywhere, but they are all closed... hmmm. We knew the Castle closed from 12-1 p.m. so we all thought maybe the shops did too, though to be honest, Heather and I seriously started to have our doubts. All this time we couldn't even see the stupid castle, I mean, it's a big building, where is it hiding??? We round a corner, and there it was, all pretty in the small blizzard falling around us. Unfortunately, it was up a rather steep hill. So, up we went, taking breaks every so often, huffing and puffing like practiced smokers til we got to the top, stopped and ate our packed lunches (see we have our smart moments).


We played with a kitty that stopped by for a few minutes and walked the short distance up to the Castle door... where we see a sign that says: The Castle is closed during the month of February. AGHHHHHHHHHHH!!! That's me pointing at the sign on the door. After cursing into the falling snow and running around like idiots for five minutes, we decided we're gonna take pictures like tourists, walk around as far as we can (cuz the building's on a side of a mountain), and make the most of it before we have to walk back down to the sound of locals laughing at our stupidity.


On the way back, we actually found a tiny little restaurant that was open and we all went inside for hot chocolate and a light snack... the guy was extremely nice. We trekked our way back to the station, and the snow was really coming down now. We got back to our dorms to find out the water is not running, hasn't been all day (did I mention our electricity has gone out 3 times since I've been here?) So now we're all just thawing out in our rooms, not having water. The castle was pretty and it was nice having it to ourselves, even if we didn't get to go in. It was a funny experience that we are already laughing about... cuz we knew it was gonna happen.

Thanks for all the love from my last rather sad blog... it's not that I'm homesick, per se, it's just I want to be able to see you guys too. Thanks for putting up with this long, but hopefully amusing story... pics coming soon!!!

I'm sitting in my roomie Shelly's room (the one who lets me use her potcitac/computer), I actually have no idea where she's from, yet. Everyone is out and about. It's a Thursday night, which is like a Friday night b/c no one has classes on Fridays. I think I'm getting a little sick so I decided to punk out and stay inside. Some are out whoopin' it up, my people (yes, I have people), are out seeing the Nutcracker/ A Christmas Carol. I'm done with ballets. They're nice, just 2 is enough for me.

So, caught up with my homework b/c with only one week down, I'm incredibly behind (said with a slight sarcastic drawl!!). I was reading the other Prague-ers blogs, they are all teachers. I'm kinda freaking out that my blog is on that website, this is supposed to just be for friends and family, oh well.

I read back through my blog and realized something, I apparently can't spell, or spellcheck anyway. So tonight is gonna be a loser's night. Catch up on some reading, currently reading The Pianist. May do some dishes, may take a shower, may totally punk out and go to bed by 9.

Plans for tomorrow: Well there was a planned field trip to Kutna Hora, but as I am already going on March 17th-ish, I don't wanna go twice. Me and my peeps may end up going inside Prague Castle, that is the tenative schedule. I only have 400kcs left to spend for tomorrow before my 2500kc/week budget starts up again on Saturday. Last week I only spent $50, but this week, what with buying books and that stupid jacket, I am already up to $84-ish dollars. Plus the first thing I need to buy on Saturday costs 1000kc. Man I am complaining a lot.... sigh.

Good news, I am not feeling as homesick as I thought I would, which is nice. I'm alone now, but it's my own doing. The only thing is... I WANT A CARE PACKAGE! Everyone seems to be getting one... and I feel left out. But I guess it costs some $30 at least to send something here, depending on the size. I know I have a V-Day card in the mail from mom and Brad, so I'm gonna be bragging a lot on that day when I get it! I can't figure out how to translate the ones I bought for people, so I'm going to send them with my own translations, it's hilarious.

BTW, I wouldn't mind getting some pics from YOU guys. The most updated pics of my sisters that I brought with me are of when Jennifer still lived with us... a loooooong time ago (Hey meems, what was with your hair?). Everyone here, meaning my roomie Mandy, wants to see current photos of mi familia. (Little side note, since coming here, I am absolutely amazed by how much Spanish I know.... Spanish word for keyboard: teclado, Czech word for keyboard: hellifiknow.) So email me, give them to Brian so he can put them up here, I don't care... I want to know what's going on in little ol' Toodahleedoo. I MISS YOU GUYS!!! Hasta luego, whoops...

And of course, by warm, I mean around 30 degrees. I couldn't see my breath! Well, only when I went down a cold street. But that's downright balmy here, we're breaking out the flip flops soon.

Yesterday I did end up going to see The Full Monty, a.k.a. Donaha, at Divadlo na Vinohradech (photos). It was a little expensive at around $10 a ticket, but they were good seats. It was a great play. I went with Elise, the girl who's making my scarf for me, and I agreed with her that I have never had so much fun not understanding a single word. We understood one line: Jsem Michael... I am Michael. We'd catch a word here and there, but overall, nic (nothing). It was a hilarious show, one I definitely want to see in English, maybe I'll just rent the movie. Plus, I didn't get home until almost 11 p.m.! That's the latest, yet!! Yes, I am a loser. Don't worry Meems, I'll try to stay out later for you guys. BTW, I got it worked out that you and Brian are going to be going to Kutna Hora with me on March 17th I believe, the Friday you're here. I forgot to ask if it costs anything, maybe $20 each at the most, and it will be a 9-5 trip. I'll pay if it costs something.

Mom and Brad, I know I haven't called in awhile, I'm waiting to get a phone card because I'm already too close to my spending limit for the week to get it now, maybe Saturday.

On Saturday I am supposed to see Don Giovanni, which is pretty famous here, though I have no idea what it's about. I only know that it was a Czech guy that wrote it and that it premiered here. Just think, I will have been here only three weeks and I will have seen 2 ballets, a play, and a drama(?)! Man, I'm getting me some culture!

Ok, time for some pics: One is a pic of St. Wencenslas Square raken from the steps of the National Museum, the next is the National Museum (boring, don't go there!), the third is what I thought a pretty picture of an old tree growing over a doorway near the Strahov Monastery, and the last one is of the Charles Bridge, can't remember if I showed you all a pic of that or not. Hope you like them! Nashle!

Hello all! Sorry it's been awhile since I've written, but I've been semi-busy for once. Classes started yesterday and I just figured I'd wait until I had one of each of my classes done before I wrote about them. My first class is Mon/Wed 8:30-10, and it's about Modern Czech and Central European History. My teacher is Czech, with a rather thick accent at times, but I manage. It seems pretty easy, just a midterm (45% of the grade) and a final (also 45%) that consist of a 3 page essay and 10 short answers. Then there's attendance for the other 10% of the grade. He's supposesdly taking us to the National Museum, which I went to yesterday and I'll get to that in a minute, and the Army Museum (yay). My second class yesterday was my Czech language class, Mon 10-11:30 and Thur 8:30-10... man I have never felt so stupid, ever. Jamie is in my class and we set the bar for stupidity... ugh. We didn't learn squat apparently in our Intensive language course. She may drop the class, but I'm kind of stuck. I will definitely learn a lot, I learned more in the first half hour of class than I did the last two weeks. Other than feeling really stupid, the class itself should be fine.

Today's class from 11:30-2:30 is called Marriages and Cultures. There are only eight of us in the class so far, but I'm told some European students are supposed to join us next week. There's a midterm and a final worth 30% of the grade each, attendance 10%, and a 3-4 page paper worth 30%. This semester will definitely be easy when it comes to papers. The class seems semi easy, but the professor is EXTREMEMLY softspoken. Even when I sat right next to her, I couldn't hear her, plus she's oriental and I think she's had a stroke because the left side of her face doesn't work quite well... thus I can't read her lips either. Sigh, I'll just have to deal.

So yesterday I went to the National Museum with Jamie, Wendy, Amaanda, and Mandy because it is free admission on the first Monday of the month. Thank goodness it was free... it's SOOO boring. The building itself is pretty, but everything inside is dull. Seriously, there are 5-6 rooms containing nothing but rocks and minerals, all labeled and color coded. Then there are rooms and rooms of taxidermied animals, and bones. Then there is the prehistoric tools exhibit that takes up roughly 7 rooms. The only semi interesting thing there was an evolution on media exhibit (yeah I didn't see the connection between that and ancient rocks and animals carcasses either). Unfortunately, it was all in Czech so I had no clue what anything was. Oh well, it was free, and it got us out of the dorms.

I've started making rounds at night around 8ish. What I do is just go around to all the rooms where I know people and say hi. I stick around for awhile, like maybe 10-20 minutes, and invite them to go with me on my rounds. I also invite them up to my dorm for hot chocolate or tea. (supply your own cup and spoon... and hot chocolate or tea). So far I've only done it 2 nights, but I think everyone's starting to look for me now, yay! This way, I see everyone before they go out drinking, socialize a little without having to drink myself. No, not everyone drinks here, I've actually found about 5-6 consistent people to hang out with on that level. Afterwards I return to my room and chat with my roomie (Mandy from Idaho)until we get tired. Two nights ago we got really bored and she taught me how to salsa dance. She even let me be the girl!

One last thing before I go, my plans for the night. I'm supposed to go see a play in czech, but am not totally sure because we don't know the price. It's The Full Monty, yes yes I know, I'm not supposed to see this kind of thing, but it's CULTURE! Plus it's in Czech! I'll let you all know how that one goes, won't post any pics on it though! Don't really have any new pics now, so until next time... Na Shledanou!

Yes that's the correct way to spell that here. Today Mandy, Amaanda, and I went to see Onegin at the National Theater. That theater is just as pretty as the State Opera, but the seats were better this time. The performance was pretty, good colors and music. It's about a girl who falls in love with a self-centered guy that's in love with the first girl's sister who already has a dude that gets killed by Self-Centered, then the first girl goes on to marry soldier boy, but of course Self-Centered wants her now, but she says no go away.... phew. Catch all that? And everyone wore tights and lived miserably ever after. BTW, Meems and Brian, while you are here, the State Opera is showing Carmen and Madam Butterfly, the National Theater isn't really showing anything interesting.... what one did you want to see? Carmen is on Saturday, and MB is on Sunday.
Tomorrow is the first day of classes (at 8:30 in the freezing morning), and I'm a little anxious. I have no idea what to expect at all. Most are saying that you can pass as long as you show up, others say don't buy the books, still others say it can be pretty challenging. My favorite so far is the person that told me not to worry because it's bad publicity for schools to fail, or even give bad grades, to international students. Good point, eh? Well, gonna put up some pics of my friends. The first one is of Mandy, Amaanda and I, in that order, while at the National Opera today. The other one is our view of the stage there. The last one is of Suzana, my Czech Intensive teacher... should be up soon!!

Today was a much better day. First, I got to sleep in, always a bonus. Then I cleaned the stains off the aforementioned ruined clothes. I asked my one roomie with a computer if I could use hers, and she said yes, that I could even upload pics. Have yet to see if it works, but we'll soon see. Today, Mandy, Amaada, and I walked around Old Town Square again. We watched the Astronomical Clock do its thang... pretty anti-climatic, but the little crowing rooster at the end is cute. Then we found heaven... on a bun. Okay let me explain. They have these sandwiches here that are made of fried cheese which they put on a bun. They also put this mayo/tartar sauce on it, sounds healthy right? It is absolutey amazing, especially when you are freezing. Don't worry Meems, I have that on my list of stuff for you to do. That and trying the roast sirloin in cream sauce, lemons, cranberries, and whipped cream with thick bread dumplings. Anybody else's tummy growling? The food here is the best, I'll definitely be suprised if I don't gain any wait with their bread-heavy diet here.

We then went to a touristy scarf shop where this cute Italian guy totally conned me into buying a cute little jacket/sweater that says Czech on the back. Mandy and Amaanda ended up buying a few cashmere scarves as well. We had actually intended buying it all, so we weren't really conned, but he was pretty cute... and Italian. So I've spent entirely too much today, and we'll now probably go out for dessert, maybe.

Today it snowed, and is still snowing. It's incredibly romantic looking, but cold. Everything is really pretty, but I'm too afraid to catch the snow on my tongue because of the pollution. The tourists were out in full force today also, which kind of distracted me a little. All in all, really pretty today, and I of course left my camera in the room so it looks like today will be just for me.

I think I got the pics to work, if so, the first few are what my half of the room looks like, I'm standing outside in order to get it all in. The next are I believe the "kitchen" and the "shower". I think the other two are the views from my windows. I found out that the church spires belong to Strahov Monastery, I believe. Sorry I don't seem to know anything for sure... we'll see how it goes. I'll add more soon because I can apparently only do 4-5 a blog. Write later! Na Zdravi!

Finally found a reason to hate this country... laundry, and their stupid keyboard. You see, the zs and ys on the keyboard are switched here, there is no at symbol either. There is a way to switch the keyboard from czech to english, but it does not always work, like today. There is no apostrophe on this one apparently. Plus I am in a room that must have just been painted, as I am slowly succumbing to the fumes. Yesterday I did my laundry for the first time, and the dryer totally ate my good clothes. Mostly stuff from casual corner, camis, turtlenecks, and bras...? I can sew some of the straps back together, but the holes are kinda unfixable. I am told the black stains are removable. Yay. Plus, after two and a half hours in the dryer, they were still wet. ARGHHHH! Jamie did her laundry with me, we were the guinea pigs of the group. We decided we are going to Little Caesars for dinner and then going to Cafe Louvre for hot chocolate. The brightside?? It only cost 15kc, roughly 75 cents, to have my clothes ruined. At the laundromat, it costs 140kc, or about 6bucks to wash and dry your laundry, more if there is a lot to do. My Czech classes are done now. I know how to say two beers please, my room is cold, no, I do not have marijuana, how much are theater tickets, and bitch sausage. Sorry mom. Do not ask about that last one... they do not actually say that here. But apparently Americans do? I am slowly dying from the fumes and must leave now... pics will be up as soon as I can find a computer that will let me upload them.... sorry all. Tomorrow will be better.

Hey all! I´m hoping to be able to add some pics today, but I have yet to take some of my room and friends. I´m also having fun trying to use computers that aren´t mine and have time limits. So I apologize for not uploading a lot of pics.

Let´s see, random Prague-isms: the language is really tough, and not everyone speaks English. Mostly only business people and some students. Street vendors know only the "important" words. You learn to ignore the people that come up to you at night and ask if you want marijuana or other drugs... it happens, just say ne (no). No means yes here. The people are sometimes seen as rude, but remember, they just came out of communism less than a generation ago when creativity and individualism was frowned upon. They're getting there, but no one smiles at you when you walk down the street and cashiers are sometimes abrupt.

Restaurants charge you for EVERYTHING, so you have to be careful what you order. The bread they put down on the table is not free. If you order hot chocolate, they will automatically put whipped cream on it and then charge you for it. They sometimes have nuts or pretzels in the middle of the table, those ain't free either. Some restaurants charge a cover, but they are supposed to put that on the menu.

The grocery stores in the afternoon are INSANE!! you can seriously be gravely injured. These people are on a mission and they just push you out of the way. Plus, the wheels on the carts all spin freely, or whatever, so pushing your cart around is a blast. I learned to become pretty aggressive quickly. You can't wait for an opening, b/c they won't.

The air is not too bad. There are days where you can definitely feel the smog, but other days are nice. It's rather dry at night, so everyone is getting sick now. I'm kinda popular with my big jar of vitamin C. You can get everything over here, brand wise, food wise, etc. For the most part. They are definitely not a third world country!! Also, everyone, and I mean everyone, has a dog, so they can't be all bad, right? They aren't mean, they are just not overly friendly.

They have a weird sense of humor also. They make a car here called the Skoda. It literally means pity. So when someone asks what kind of car you have, you can say: "it's a pity!" Their movies are the same way, they don't like happy endings or overly emotional plots. By the way, they are supposed to be shooting the next James Bond film somewhere around here, so I'll see if I can crash the set!!!

This is turning out to be a long blog, so I'll let this go for now... hopefully there will be pics soon!