Jessica in Prague

Fun Times

2006-04-30T00:52:00.000+02:00

Well, called American Airlines, which was an ordeal in and of itself... not because of AA, just the phones and phone cards. Anyway, the nice lady with the southern drawl said two hours should be plenty of time. Didn't think to ask if I could check my bags all the way through. I could ask when I go to drop Mandy off Thursday (she's leaving early so sad...), and see what Lufthansa says then. I'm not sure what you meant by rechecking my luggage, Meems. Besides, now everyone here is telling me I'm golden on time, one girl only has an hour to do all that and she's not too worried. Anyway, she seemed to think two hours was fine, so I'll just wing it.

I booked my flights to and from California! To those of you who don't know, Mary and Laura live in Cali and Jamie and I are going to fly out in June to see them! June 13-20!!! I'm so excited. Mandy may come join us for the weekend from Idaho, too! They live in the San Diego area, so we're going to make plans to go to the zoo, maybe a Padres game, then the BEACH!!! Never been near the Pacific before! I noticed all my sentences end in exclamation points!! This way I won't miss them all so much when we leave here because I already know I'll be seeing them again. It's great!

More good news: the Ohio Legislative Service Commission, my internship peeps I'm applying for, emailed me and said they want to do a second interview, a face-to-face one when I get back!!! WHOO HOO!!!! May 9 or 10, in Columbus, Yeah BABY!!! I may get this thing yet! My life rules. I'm so excited! Now I just gottta guilt trip Jamie in to moving in with me if I get the thing so I won't be by myself in Columbus (I know I have Jennifer and Brian, and Andy and Susan... but I won't be LIVING with anyone). YAY!! Am I cool or what?

Mandy, do you still want that pink piggy thingy? I believe I found it and it costs around $20, which isn't a problem, just letting you know. Pink on top, clear on the bottom? I never would have taken you as a piggy lover!! Let me know, sorry about it being the last minute, just with all the traveling and me being lazy.... sorry!

Suppose I could write s'more

2006-04-28T12:37:00.000+02:00

Unfortunately, everything I'm doing was said in the last post. I'm just hanging out with my friends here, soaking up some sun, seeing things I haven't seen yet, eating food I know I'll miss, etc. We did go out for Mary's birthday on Tuesday... stayed out until 3 in the morning and had to take the night tram home... FUN! We were dancing to 80s music... see you can have fun completely sober! Anyway, I believe my interview went well, they asked me a lot about Prague, which was nice. One subject I know more about than they do, right? I have been taking lots of pics, but too lazy to post them, etc... may get around to it. I'm done with all but one class: history. I believe my Marriages and Cultures final went well, but my Czech final was horrible... spatny. I've started packing, and actually have maybe half packed! I'm taking a suitcase home for Shelly, as well as her lap top, which she'll pick up later this summer after she comes back from backpacking Europe. I've been told I will have no luck in catching my flight to Detroit from Chicago with only a two hour layover. I'm basically screwed. I'll try anyway. Does anyone know whether or not I can check my luggage straight through to Detroit and go through customs there? That would completely save me. Otherwise, trying to pick up my luggage, go through customs, go from Terminal 5 to 3, find my gate, check my luggage back in and get on my flight in only two hours in one of the nation's largest airports... gonna be tricky. Oy. Well, that's all I got.. gonna get going to some sight-seeing! Talk to you all later!

Almost home!

2006-04-23T18:36:00.000+02:00

Yay! My last trip outside the city is over and done with. Karlovy Vary ain't that great a place when you can't seem to find anything... sigh... it was a big waste of time. I didn't get any massages or facials... did go swimming in a not-so-thermal pool. But I had a blast with the girls anyway... Laura, Mary, Mandy, Jamie and I all had so much fun in the little apartment we rented for the weekend.

Those crazy girls... sigh, I'm gonna miss them

Now we're all back into the grind of finishing papers and studying for exams... some of us have started packing and figuring out what's getting left behind. We're all planning a potluck at the end of the semester to get rid of all the food we still have. Tomorrow we're having a fajita night for Mary's 21st birthday on Tuesday. We planning to go out dancing on Tuesday night, too! Everybody's doing everyone favors, taking stuff home for them, trading clothes, giving food and passes to people who will be staying here longer, etc. I'm taking a suitcase home for Shelly, which is also good for me, because then I'll have more room to pack! We're all excited about coming back home and are trying to squeeze in some last minute sight-seeing around our busy exam schedules. It's finally getting pretty here and we're all too busy to enjoy it! We're going out to eat more, we're all visiting things more... we're all going to miss each other terribly! We've grown so close now that it's time to go.. it kinda sucks. Some of us are going to see each other this summer (Yeah Cali!!), but the rest of us? We may never see each other again. How sad.

On a lighter note... It IS prettier here... some spring storms to break up the sunny days, but even those are nice because it isn't snow. I have a couple finals this week and one next week. I also have my phone interview with the Ohio State Legislature Commission so everyone wish me luck!! My camera isn't getting along with the computer so it's getting harder and harder to add pics and keep up with it. I'm trying, but it's not priority for me right now. I hope to get everthing up on snapfish and then re-invite everyone to it. My blog is kinda getting left behind, sorry. My memento book just got caught up, as did my journal, but my memento book is huge and I don't know how I'm going to get that thing home... I may come back through and put pics up later, so keep looking, and have faith. Talk to you later... we're in the final stretch!

Bonjour! C'est Paris!!!

2006-04-18T18:33:00.000+02:00

Yeah I know the title doesn't quite make sense... oh well!

Oy, what a busy weekend! It was great, it was beautiful, I LOVE PARIS! I'm going to give the day-by-day schedule, but don't get disappointed when you see that I didn't accomplish much. This was our first non-school-related trip and we wanted to relax and enjoy it. We (Amaanda, Mandy, and I) only scheduled three or four sites a day, and saw many things two or three times instead of trying to see everything. Here it goes:

Notre Dame

Day one: St. Chapelle's Cathedral, incredibly beautiful because the second storey is mostly all windows and thus looks like it's floating with no walls; Notre Dame, we weren't all that thrilled with it because we didn't go in it and we approached it at the wrong angle... we found out on Monday how beautiful it actually is, but the park behind it is very pretty; the Louvre, on Fridays the museum is open until 9:30 and the tickets are only 6 euro after 6 p.m. (we didn't notice until it was too late that students under the age of 25 get in free after 6 p.m. but at least we got a ticket stub!!), we saw Mona Lisa (got in trouble trying to take a pic), Venus di Milo, some Michaelangelo, Napoleon's digs, and so on. That and I had my first crepe!!! Yummy!

It's the Mona Lisa, I swear!

Day two: Moulin Rouge, kind of a let down, but it's pretty neat I guess, it's way too expensive to actually go and see a show (80-100 euro), so we just took pics outside; Champs Elysees, big shopping area that none of us could afford so we just walked through it and up to the Arc d' Trioumphe (sp?), that was spectacular... once we got up the fifty million stairs to the top, good panoramic view of Paris! Eiffel Tower, we finally walked to it and it was kind of overwhelming, we stopped to have dinner and came back when it was dark and all lit up and sparkling... it was amazing! I took probably at least 50 pics of the tower alone, and some video. We rode a carousel underneath it and it was all so magical... if only I were in love in Paris... at least I could feel like a kid with the carousel and a crepe!

Me and the Arc

Day three: We went to Versaille, it was great that so much was open and doable on Easter... a lot of the castle was under construction which would have been fine were we going inside. I had planned to just walk the grounds and look at the buildings though because that's free. We had to sidestep some construction areas and avoid all the frenchmen at gates keeping us out... sigh. We lost Amaanda there too, but we're big girls and she found her way back fine and we saw her at the end of the night in the hotel. Mandy and I went back to the Eiffel Tower and then on to Notre Dame again to do some souveneir shopping... we think that's the best place to go selection and price wise.

Eiffel Tower... all lit up!

Day four: Saw Notre Dame and actually went in it this time... it is really pretty inside. Then we decided to walk to the Eiffel Tower from there, which I don't recommend because it's a freaking long walk. Got there with no time to go up it... so no I haven't been up the Eiffel tower.... I'll do that on my honeymoon :o) We had to get going to the airport so... we did that. Got into Prague about midnight and promptly left my wallet at the airport (no money or cards, just my transportation pass and phone card... ugh). Good news? IT'S BEAUTIFUL HERE IN PRAGUE! That and the people I applied for and internship with emailed me to set up a phone interview, YAY!!! Step one to being accepted. Sorry this is so long, and I hope to add pics and videos soon... all updated at snapfish already, but w/o captions. Getting ready for Karlovy Vary this weekend which is a spa-like town to the northwest of Prague.... getting some massages and facials! Man, am I spoiled or what? Talk to you all later!
Ha, ha just kidding! I found my wallet in my dirty laundry, which I had checked, just not well enough I guess. This is after I bought another transportation pass for $9-$10. UGGGHH!

Hey all!

2006-04-12T10:23:00.000+02:00

Well, I had a blast in Krakow... unfortunately, my camera batteries died and I have no way of recharging them and thus, uploading pics, for awhile. But just believe me, I had fun..

Don't ever get bored in Krakow!!

This time we got a real bus to ride in for only eight hours. Plus we got Jaroslav back, he was our bus driver for the five-day trip and he's a genius. He backed into a parking lot in Cesky Krumlov with inches on either side with no problem, he even got a standing ovation! Anyway, the drive there and back was definitely more comfortable than Venice.

We had breakfast at some random hotel in the morning and went on to Auschwitz. The tour was about four hours long, but it flew by. Unfortunately, we stayed in a large group tour and there were some fifty other large tours going on as well. So there wasn't any alone-thinking time. There were two camps there actually: Auschwitz and Auschwitz II - Birkenau (there's a third Auschwitz, but we didn't go to it). A-I is actually really small compared to A-II. There were lots of sites to cover and I wished I had had more time on my own. I would recommend it to anyone who is able to go there, to do so, but on your own.

Afterwards, they took us to Krakow (Auschwitz is the name of the city... separate from Krakow). We were kinda abandoned at our hotel for a couple hours with no knowledge of the language, transportation system, where we were on the map, or way of exchanging money... and we were all hungry. It kinda sucked. Mary, Mandy, Jamie, and I decided to walk to the city center rather than risk getting caught w/o passes on the tram. Our hotel was way out in boofoo and we just headed in a general direction of big buildings. An hour and a half later and two-three miles father along, we finally get to a currency exchange place and grabbed some food from a street vendor (BAAAAD idea). We bought tram passes and worked our way back to the hotel where we met the rest of the group for an organized dinner.

I can officially say I had a real Polish pierogi, just don't know how to spell it. I also had sadlo... before I knew what it was (pure animal fat that they spread on bread). It's actually really good if you add salt and don't mind shaving off ten years of your life. We went back to the hotel and ate chocolate and went to bed!

Street where much of Schindler's List was shot

The next day we had a guided tour of the city, which was awesome. I didn't know this is where they filmed Schindler's List, or that it even mostly took place here. Anna was the best tour guide, showing us things we actually wanted to see, and guiding us towards other places. The only bad thing is that it's a Catholic country, and thus, everything closes really early on Saturdays... museum- and church-wise. We ate at a real Pizza Hut (THE BEST EVER!) and wandered around shopping and trying to sneak into churches. We saw the Pope John Paul II memorial (he was from the area and it's the one year anniversary of his death). Then we got really tired and decided to go back to the hotel early... and got extremely bored, man if you could only see the pics. We actually got yelled at for being too loud, but once Eva (our group leader) saw why we were laughing... she kinda gave up yelling at us. We ate more Polish chocolate, no not that great, and watched Pretty Woman dubbed (horribly) over in Polish.

Statues in salt mines.... made of salt!

On the way back the next day, we stopped off at some salt mines and traveled 400 feet below the surface... it's really interesting down there... kinda neat! Got back, and have basically been vegging out ever since. Finished my paper for Marriages and Culture class (last paper of my college career!!!), ate some more chocolate, avoided the salmonella plague that's going around, and am now looking up stuff for Paris. Almost there, guys, three weeks left!! Miss you!

Back from Poland

2006-04-10T08:24:00.000+02:00

Just real quick, on my way to class... I'm back from Krakow. It was pretty neat, but everything closes rather early on the weekend because it's a Catholic country. Saw Auschwitz, Wawel Castle and churches, and some salt mines.. all very entertaining or enlightening. I won't be sharing the pics to Auschwitz on line because they are rather personal for me, not to be selfish. I'll gladly show them to you in person if possible, when I get back. Off to class now!! Miss you all!

The Movie Star Returns

2006-04-06T18:21:00.000+02:00

Four more videos from the traveling whirlwind known as Jessica...

"Here are some more videos... there should be four all together. One's of a pretty walk through Vienna, another is of the night time views of Budapest from the Fishermen's Bastion, another is when we are at Devin Castle in Bratislava... and basically of my friends!!, and the last one is a short one of a Venetian gondaleri singing.. my battery died in the middle of it!!"

#1 - Vienna
#2 - Budapest
#3 - Bratislava
#4 - Venice Gondaleri

Slightly Extended Version

2006-04-03T14:48:00.000+02:00

Hey all! Well, I know you're all just dying to know what I did in Italy. Here goes:

Here's the gondoleri!

Spent some 13-14 hours cramped in a 17 passenger van with 16 other people, stopping every two hours or so to stretch. It was horrible. Nobody slept, but we got to Venice at around 10 in the morning, so had no choice but to go on fumes. Venice is expensive! But extremely beautiful. It was nice and sunny, fed the birds, walked around, got hosed on lunch, and basically went to bed at 9 in a mosquito-infested room, got the bumps on my face to prove it!

Feeding the birds.. don't worry Meems, no bird pooped on your shirt!

Next day, we had a day trip to Verona where we say Juliet's (as in Romeo and Juliet) balcony, and a Roman coliseum, but not THE Roman Coliseum. It was okay there, lots of shopping, good gelato. Came back to Venice and had a great dinner of lasagna and pork. And some more gelato.

Juliet's Balcony... yeah, right

Day three: Put our stuff in the van at 10:30 in the morning and had until 11 at night before we had to leave for Prague... it was a long day. We took a gondola ride, fed the birds some more, had some more gelato and pizza, went shopping some more, and tried to sleep while walking. I have officially learned how to pee into a hole in the ground (yeah I know, eww), and am quite proud of myself. I don't think Italy believes in toilet seats.

Me on a gondola half way around the world!

Anyway, the whole place, at least the historical part of the city, is an island... no cars anywhere except for one parking lot where the buses take people. Taxis, public transportation, police, mail service, funeral processions (yep saw one of those), weddings (saw a couple of those too), are all on the waterways. There are over 400 bridges on the entire island. I saw Cassanova's house too.. not too shabby.

My battery recharger has been "replaced" by an old, non-working look-a-like and I have become dependent on Jamie and Wendy for battery recharging. My camera eats normal batteries within an hour so they are kind of useless. I'm tired, going to school kind of sucks (though we saw some filming going on right outside of school this morning... James Bond film maybe??? More than likely just a car commercial, but still neat!), and now I have to get ready for Krakow and Auschwitz. I'm definitely ready to come home. I'm tired.. It's finally spring here, tourists are in full bloom (they everywhere, they everywhere!). NO MORE SNOW! I actually walked to school today! Well, write again later, probably after Poland, but before France (ha ha yes I AM bragging!). Bye! Arrivederci! (sp?)

Look Ma, no coat!!

Back from Italy

2006-04-02T17:03:00.000+02:00

Keeping it short... I'm back from Italy, Venice and Verona to be more precise. I'm tired, got school tomorrow, and leave for Krakow Thursday at midnight (Friday morning). Italy: pretty. 17 passenger van with 16 people traveling for 13 hours over night: ugly. I'll have more time later this week to update. Later!

Ahoy, Guten Tag, Jo Napot, and Ahoy again

2006-03-28T19:36:00.000+02:00

Oy... I'm exhausted! Just got back from my five day trip. It was a blast, but I'm whupped. Okay, here's a very brief synopsis, and I won't have any pics up for awhile. I promise that they will all be up on snapfish by say June.

An old castle at the end of the hike from hell, sooo worth it.

Cesky Krumlov: cute little place, great bed and breakfast, bought shoes, ate a platter full of meat and made fun of the vegetarians... had the hike from hell where we all almost died, but didn't, a lot of people were sick, on to Vienna

The humando platter of meat... bwahahahaha!

Vienna: had weiner schnitzel (or whatever) really good, had Viennese coffee which tastes like cappucino, walked around A LOT, learned some German, broke down and bought Mc D's for lunch, on to Budapest

The Imperial Palace grounds

Pretty Rathaus(?) at night

Budapest: MOST BEAUTIFUL PLACE EVER! especially at night, everyone got sick on the spicy food, went to the hot spas... nice, and took a boat tour down the Danube for my dad, learned some Magyar along the way, on to Bratislava

The beautiful, beautiful castle in Budapest

View down the Danube from Margaret Island

Bratislava: here for a total of four hours of which two and a half spent looking for a place to go potty, super cheap, they speak czech, lost two people and would have left them had we not spoken up on their behalf, on to home

The only neat thing I saw in Bratislava

Literally just got home about half an hour ago and leave again in 23 hours for Venice on a 12 hour long bus ride... UGH! My tummy is kind of mad at me with all this new food and moving around, so I'm off to Bohemia Bagel, baby! Then gonna go home and pass out for awhile... miss you all! BTW, I took about 325 pics and 3 videos, no joke, so the trip is well documented.

Part Two, Dva, Dos, Deux, etc.

2006-03-23T18:59:00.000+01:00

Welcome back to the program, the second half is just below, enjoy the show!

The gang got a late start on Saturday... but we headed out to Vysehrad. This time we actually went in the Church of Sts. Peter and Paul. It was really pretty. We walked along the Vltava river to the Dancing Building, went across the river to Andel where there's a mall, and ate pizza for lunch. Next we mosied on over to the Lennon Wall (I think I've spelled moseyed 3 different ways since I started this thing, sorry). It was neat, but I again forgot to bring my permanent marker with me, so I'll have to make a third trip. We went back to their hotel and rested a bit before Meems and I went to a store called Lush. They sell all sorts of scented soaps that are supposed to be all natural or something. Smells yummy. Meems has this ingenious way of buying souveniers that are scented so that whenever she uses it, she remembers the trip. Neat, huh? Afterwards, we all met up with Mandy, Jamie, and Wendy at the Louvre for the HOT CHOCOLATE... we also had some penne pasta for dinner.

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday: We had tix to see the opera The Devil and Kate (Cert a Kaca). We met up at the National Theater, and I guess it was okay. I think I'm just getting sick of operas. It had a weird ending... kinda un-opera-y. They decided they were going to go to lunch and do all this other stuff. It made me tired just talking about it, so Meems and Brian gave me the day off. I went home and went to bed. They apparently had lunch at Cafe Slavia across from the theater. Then they got caught having student transportation passes, but not being students (see blog from last Sunday). Bad day... very bad. I made it sound way worse than it was, but I was just down the whole day.

Monday was better. After classes (exam in history, yikes, and went over exam in Czech class B+), they trekked over, with new and improved passes, and we downloaded pics again. Then we went to the T.V. Tower. It is considered the ugliest building in the city skyline because it sticks out like a sore thumb. The guy who designed it was kinda weird and put a bunch of crawling babies with bar codes for faces all over it. It was rather creepy. They planned to go to a concert at the Rudolfinium and then go to the Communist Museum later. So we all booked it to Old Town, smazed it (had a smazeny syr sandwich: fried cheese patty with tartar sauce in a roll, can't you just hear the arteries clogging?), and got them off to the concert while I went grocery stopping at Tesco. Turns out I was way off on the concert date, so they went to the Communist Museum instead. After Tesco, had a potluck at my professor for my Marriages and Culture class's apartment. She's Chinese and she made a lot of Chinese food: rice, noodles, seaweed (eww), and raw fish (bleeech). Her apartment is really nice, I'll have pics on snapfish when I get back home or something.

Tuesday: Had my midterm for M & C class. I didn't actually get to spend much time with them that day because there was massive miscommunication involved. They went to a Prague Orchestra concert at the Municipal House.. and they paid for me and Heather to see it the next day, it was really good, the soloist was phenomenal! Anyway, while they were there, I went to an orientation for my Venice and Krakow trips, had crappy Chinese food and good dessert with Heather. After that, Heather and I went to Meems' hotel to drop off stuff I wanted them to take home for me. Got home about midnite, took a shower, went to bed, woke up Wednesday morning at 6a.m., and "took" them to the airport. I'm just happy we didn't get lost on the way there, let's just leave it at that. BTW, Prague airport is freakin' awesome! So open, colorful, and friendly!

This is quite a blog so I'll wrap it up. Just getting ready for my 5 day trip to Vienna, Budapest, and Bratislava (capital of Slovakia). Had a great Italian dinner tonite at a place Meems and Brian had recommended. Pasta with chicken in a white sauce, onions, cheese, and lemon. Yum! I won't get to a computer for awhile, so don't look for any updates any time soon. At the earliest, in a week, at the latest, two. Take a look at my schedule for more info! Wish me happy travels!

Color Itinerary in Pencil, by J. Brown

2006-03-23T17:49:00.000+01:00

Post from Jess's TA: I snapped a photo of Jess's upcoming very busy itinerary as she travels all about Europe. Take a look so you can know what she's up to at every moment...

(click for full-size)

Whew, they're finally gone!!

2006-03-22T22:47:00.000+01:00

Ha ha.. j/k. Well, it HAS been a long week. There is a lot of ground to cover and I'll probably break it off into two blogs (do I smell a sequel?).

$0.64 beer on the left, $1.00 beer on the right

So Mimi and Brian arrive and I meet them in their hotel's bar, 'twill be a recurring theme throughout the week, bars. Anywho, I decide to take it relatively easy on them and just take the tram back to my dorm (where I quickly hid my homemade cookies, Italian dressing, and real, actual Coke). Met my roomies, showed them the hot plate (UPDATE: We got a new one today!!!). Then I decided I'd take them to a restaurant by their hotel, but first we meandered our way back. We went through Prague Castle grounds, which is really pretty at night, and free. Then we walked semi-along the Vltava river, up and across the Charles Bridge, down Tourist Row (no it's not actually called that, just looks like it), and to the restaurant U Vejvodu. Introduced them to good Czech food, and beer. It was about 9 p.m. and Brian was falling asleep at the table. Took them back to their hotel and went home myself. End of day one...

Day dva: BIG DAY. Started off with my little field trip to Kutna Hora that I signed them up for. It was a lovely little trip, only went until about 3 in the afternoon, not an all dayer. Saw a walkway where they filmed parts of The Three Musketeers... pretty neat, made to look like France. Best of all? NO HIKING! When we got back, I took them to the famed Bohemia Bagel to show them what all the fuss was about. They thoroughly enjoyed it. Tomato soup with a huge cheese bagel: $2, Coke w/ FREE refills: little under $2, spending time with the family 5,000 miles away from home: priceless. Across the street is a Communist Memorial. Looked at that for awhile and decided to go up to Petrin Hill to look out the Eiffel Tower. However, apparently the funicular train was under construction the whole week they were here. No worries, we just walked (hiked) our way up. Problem: Eiffel Tower thingy is only open on Saturdays and Sundays... d'oh. Walked around a little up there and moseyied our way over to Strahov Monastery where I attempted to show them a wooden nativity scene (gone) and the cute little doorway with a tree growing over it (closed off). FINE! At this point we are all by my dorm again so we decide to upload some pics and doodle on the computer (Shelly is definitely on my list of people to buy cars for one day). After THAT we took the metro over to Old Town, by this time it was dark out and all was purty. Walked through the drug and cabaret scene, forgot it was St. Patty's Day, to Wencenslas Square. We ate a crap-ton of Chinese food at my fave place, we were miserably stuffed. Walked up and down the square, back to Old Town for some not-so-much-needed gelato, went to an Irish pub for Patty's sake, then booked it to Malostranska in order to catch the last available tram before the night ones kicked on. Whew, I was worn out. Got home about 12:30 a.m.

Leaning against the grain at the Communist Memorial

There's my beloved Bohemia Bagel

I'll continue the rest tomorrow... some further updates. Got Venice and Krakow paid off and just booked my trip to Karlovy Vary, which is the Czech spa town. Gonna get me some RE-LAX-A-TION! Like I need it. Anyway, just been told that Daylight Savings Time over here is this Sunday whereas back home it's the following week, weird. But that means there will be a seven hour difference for a week... I think. I'm getting a headache. It's like trying to contemplate the scope of the universe, DST + different time zones = oww oww oww. I leave Friday for Vienna, Budapest, and Bratislava. Hopefully Brian will be putting up a helpful little calender once he recoups from jet lag (feel free to put up any pics you want regarding today's blog, you have the better pics anyway). Talk to y'all tomorrow... bye!

The whole gang at Wencenslas Square

Warning: In a bad mood

2006-03-19T18:13:00.000+01:00

Just so you all know when you read this.

I hate this place. It's really starting to get to me, here. I know I shouldn't be broadcasting this world-wide, but everyone understands foreign students have their bad days too. Meems and Brian are in the city somewhere, trying to get ahold of me, not knowing I'm here in my room. Apparently, they got caught having student passes. Silly me, I bought month long passes for them using my student discount because it was cheaper than buying a seven day pass. Why would I put them in such risk, you ask? BECAUSE I HAVE NEVER EVER BEEN CHECKED FOR BEING A STUDENT AND NO ONE I KNOW HAS BEEN EITHER! They are so freakin' lacksadaisical about it every other day, why now? Why have me look like the cheap sister who doesn't care? Can't make a local call to their hotel, because I can't figure out how. I'm so tired and sick from two and a half days of extra long walks outside. It's flippin beautiful out now and I can't enjoy it. And my sister can't get ahold of me so that she can find out how to spend another ten dollars on a "legit" pass. This is on top of the $40 they already charged them for not being students. I really hate this place. That and every time I try to take them some place, it's either closed or not working, or I don't know crap about it. I am the worst tour guide ever. If I ever go some where else... never here again, I can tell you that now... don't ever visit me because you'll just do a lot of walking with no point, see stupid 3 hour long operas, and pay way too much money for nothing. I suck at life. Too tired to explain what I've been doing these past few days, but needed to vent. Update everyone later.... If I don't ship myself home with my sister first.

All is well

2006-03-16T23:29:00.000+01:00

This is gonna be a short one. But to all who wondered... Mandy and Brian have arrived, safe and sound, and are already enjoying the scenes of Prague. They said they feel like they are in a fairy tale, but that they have actually stepped into it. It kind of freaked them out to walk in to my room and see that it looked exactly like the pictures on the blog! As we walked around they pointed out other things they remembered me taking pictures of... it was kind of neat, being the little tour guide! Well, they are tucked into their beds (big, fluffy, non-hard-as-a-rock, beds), tired from the flight, the walking, the heavy food, and the beers (yeah, plural, Brian has already had more beers in seven hours than I had in two months...).

Anyway, I myself am recuperating from the Chocolate Tasting Party my roomie and I had last night. It sounded like a fantastic idea at the time, but some of us are regretting it a little today! We had a bigger turn out, we added Elise and Shelly to the mix. We later took the left overs (blasphemous as that may sound, there WERE left overs) around the rest of the dorm and tried to get rid of it all. We ended up throwing some away (shhh don't let that spread around, we may be barred from cukranas, or Czech candy shops).

Found the John Lennon Wall (bout freakin time, the thing is on an island and it took me three tries to find it!!!). Kind of a disappointment, but maybe to those who actually find it the first time around, it would be interesting. Now, just preparing for the fast-paced week ahead... because my TA is over here, I don't know when photos will be up! Going to Kutna Hora tomorrow, fill you in on that later!!

More Movies!

2006-03-13T19:26:00.000+01:00

The rising Euro-Movie Star shines again! First one is a little dark and the second a little windy, but Jess says we'll just have to cope. --TA (BT)

Had any good snow lately?

2006-03-12T16:33:00.000+01:00

Cuz we sure have! Hey all, welcome to the weekly Prague Report (sorry it's been awhile!)

Just another case of not having done enough to warrant a blog, I lead such an exciting life. Let's see, what'd I do this week? I bought a ticket to see Carmen on May 2nd... ha ha! So at least I'LL get to see it. Did laundry, all's well. Went shopping for some socks, you wouldn't believe how many pairs I've had to throw away already! Went to Heather's weekly Gin Bucket for the first time. For those of you who don't know... it's basically gin, lemons, limes, and Sprite... in a bucket. I had half of a very watered down glass, wasn't too bad.

On Friday, Amaanda's friends, Sunny and Corrine from Idaho, arrived and we had french toast for breakfast. Good stuff! Later on, Mandy and I walked around Vysehrad. There used to be a castle here and was considered the southern fortress of Prague. However, Prague Castle became more "important", and the castle kind of fell to ruin, I think. Now there's the Church of Sts. Peter and Paul and a cemetary where a lot of famous Czech folk are buried. There's also St. Martin's rotunda. It'll be very pretty when/if spring comes along.

1 2 3

4 5

1. Church of Sts. Peter and Paul
2. View under the Charles Bridge of a water wheel and duckies!
3. Ceiling of the outdoor cemetary
4. Ornate carvings above church doors
5. St. Martin's Rotunda...I think

Yesterday, Mandy and I decided to buckle down and get massive amounts of homework done. Our other two roomies are gone for the weekend, but Shelly let us have the key to her room so we could use her computer (BTW she's from Ohio... she's the best roomie ever, other than Mandy of course). I tried to go out and buy tix for a black light theater production, but the place I wanted to go to doesn't exist anymore, apparently. So I walked around finding info on other theaters. We'll see when Meems and Brian get here what we end up seeing (4 more days!).

Today I went to church with Mandy, she's a Mormon (not that there's anything WRONG with that). It was neat listening to the sermon(?) in Czech and having a doo dad where the missionaries translate it for you into English. Everyone was really friendly. Unfortunately, we got about 6-8" of snow dumped on us overnight that we had to wade through in dress attire and high-heeled boots. That was fun! We're going to look up where the LDS church is in Paris b/c we'll be there on Easter and she wants to definetly go then.

All in all, just getting ready for Meems and Brian to get here, getting some homework done ahead of time b/c I won't be here to do it later!! My blogs will be even further and far between then... sorry! Bye!

Oh a hiking we will go... and go... and go

2006-03-06T18:46:00.000+01:00

My legs are tired... here's why:

This last weekend we had two field trips outside of Prague. Me being the inattentive college student that I am, I do not know the names of all the little towns we went to, so don't expect too much detail in that department!

Saturday we all went to Cesky Raj... Czech Paradise. I always thought paradise would be warmer, but what do I know? Anyway, there was a castle involved, up a hill of course (more like a small mountain), but the main attraction is the surrounding forests, rocks, landscape-age, trails, etc. Our first bus was late due to icy road conditions, that should have been a sign. We finally get there and we hiked up and around this "hill" for a good two hours. It wasn't too cold out, so that was nice. Great views of the surrounding lands, very pretty. Had to use my inhaler. The best part were the icy hills. We had to slide down them on our butts, including this really skinny crevice area... it was a blast! Never had more fun acting like a 12 year old!

We get back to the bus to go to lunch and find out it's stuck. Some cars are blocking it in and it can't manuever well on the ice. Well, our muscle-men move the cars out of the way, and we all start pushing the bus and putting twigs under the tires. All to no avail. We finally just walk down the hill to a restaurant to wait out the tow-truck. 35 hungry people descended onto this tiny little restaurant, and it took us over three hours to get everyone fed and back on the bus... we went home and laughed about it all, knowing it was probably going to be worse the next day.

It wasn't too bad Sunday. We set out to a historical settlement somewhere, and then on to Krivoklat Castle. First we made a few pit stops to small villages with pretty architecture like this one haunted church with no ceiling. We arrive at the bottom (of course, the buses can't go up the steep hills, but we can!) of the historical settlement and start climbing. And I mean climbing... up at least a 60-70 degree incline with no railings or path, or good shoes (I asked the guide ahead of time if there was going to be any hiking, he said not too much... they have a lovely sense of humor here, have I mentioned that?). We get to the top, and there is nothing there, but a rather lousy view of some hops fields (do they come in fields?). The guide mentioned something about having seen Rambo and knows that Americans can do anything. We're all standing at the top of the hill taking pictures of the stupid view simply to get something out of that ridiculous climb... cursing under our out-of-breath, and dreaming of warm, dry socks. It only hurt for a minute, really! Less hiking than the day before, but worse because of the steeper incline, and anti-climatic summit.

Haunted old abandoned church in some town	The stupid view at the top of the Mt. Everest that we climbed
Krivoklat Castle	My new Czech boyfriend. Now, he's got some machismo.

The girls ... Laura, Mary, me, Wendy, Jamie

Again the best part was going back down... the greatest looking sledding hill ever! Of course, there was too much snow to actually slide down on our butts, so instead we all did the kamikaze run down it... good times! Had lunch at a decent hour (grilled chicken with ham and cheese on top of it, in gravy, with bread, coleslaw, and croquettes... little potato balls... YUMMY!). Got to Krivoklat Castle late, thus could not actually go in. The castle itself was not that exhilirating (to such an avid traveler as myself! seen one, seen 'em all! no, just compared to others, it wasn't in my top five, let's say). The city surrounding it was marvelous, though. Right out of a fairy-tale. I must commend the bus driver for manuevering around all the turns... that takes talent. Finished off the tour with a look at some frozen river where I got some good sunset shots. BTW, all my photos can be seen on snapfish.com. I don't know how you would view my pics... but some have been able to figure it out, others are having trouble.

Now I'm waiting to go have some hot chocoalte, after polishing off half a chocolate bar with strawberry yogurt filling already. Had one of those off days... miss the tram, really cold out, got to sleep late, bad lunch, bad reading/emails... but I digress. Mandy has been cheering me up like the fantastically wonderful roommate that she is, she is slowly converting me into an Idahoan, maybe even a Mormon. I'm going to come home saying "squoze", and calling movies "shows". Bye all! Sorry so long!

Ugh, I hate computers..

2006-03-04T00:27:00.000+01:00

They are the biggest pain in the butt.

Anyway, the potluck was a smashing success! So much good food: I made deviled eggs, Mandy made her potatoes with universal seasoning, we also brought ice cream and sausage (no not mixed together). Believe me, I have pix, just having trouble with the computer I'm on... so it may be awhile. Jaime made potatoes with corn and cheese, Wendy made a great apple dessert, Laura made a pretty fruit/pie thing that had "pudding" (turned into milk, but still really good) with it, Mary brought this yummy pasta with bread (of course, can't have a meal w/o bread around here), and Amaanda made a fruit salad with sprinkled coconut and yogurt on it! We were sooo stuffed. It was great!

Mandy and I booked our flights and hostel stay for Paris last night as well! Four nights in lovely Paris over Easter break... I hope everything's not closed! The flight was about $155 and the hostel stay is roughly $100 each. However, our room gets its own toilet, shower, breakfast is included, as are linens and towels. This all may sound weird to us Americans, but that's a sweet deal to get all that in Paris for just $25 a night. It looks like Amaanda may join us as well.

Just came back from seeing Memoirs of a Geisha (Gejsa). Really beautiful movie. Today we all walked off the food by going to the Communist Museum (140kc w/ student id). It was a really informative museum, kinda small, but very to-the-point... I liked it, but don't know if it was completely worth the price.

The gelato here is great... and you can find it pretty cheap so long as you remember that everything comes in European portions: small. Also, to clear things up... I realize that paying $16 for an opera ticket may not seem like much... and it isn't when compared to prices in the states, but you'd be suprised how quickly we all adapted to all these cheap prices. For example, we consider paying more than 200kc way too much for food. A good deal can be gotten at 125-150kc, roughly $5-$7. Same thing with theater tickets. If we see a ballet performance for only 50kc, or $2, when we're not real big fans of ballet to begin with, why pay more? Plus, I go grocery shopping about once a week, and get really ticked off if I spend more than 200kc for all my stuff. I'm talking bread, milk, cheese, chocolate, snack bars, juice, more chocolate, bananas, oranges, yogurt all for less than $10.... sweet huh? I spent more on my Communist Museum ticket than I did on groceries yesterday. It's insane how cheap some things are... but that'll probably change once the euro hits, sigh...

That's about it from this end... I'll get the pix out as soon as possible! Bye!

Yay... Paree! (Don't wanna say GAY Paree... may offend!)

2006-03-02T13:19:00.000+01:00

Ahh the sun is out! The tourists are in full bloom... the trams are crowded, the salesclerks are rude, but patient, and the drunks are staying out longer.

It will probably snow tomorrow (said in Eeyore voice).

There's a lot of traffic in town lately b/c the Russian President is here. His motorcade has actually messed with my tram schedule, etc. about three times now. I've seen it go by twice, some of the girls have actually seen the President talking with the Czech President at Prague Castle. All the media was there, big puffy-hat band/soldier people, lots of police. BTW, the Czech word for police is policie. If you just say police, that means shelf, go figure.

I tried to get tix to Carmen for my sis, b-i-l, and I, but they were already sold out of the cheap-o seats, the next cheapest ones were like $16-$20. Instead, we're going to see the opera, The Devil and Kate! Just as interesting I'm sure. All for just $5, including my ticket, using the lovely student discount. I realize Meems and Brian are probably shaking their heads at me, wondering why I didn't splurge just a little in order to get better seats or something, but they need to see the opera from a college-student's point of view: 500 feet above everybody else.

Everyone's getting kinda sick here, so a lot of people are staying in and being anti-social. The girls and I are having a potluck dinner tonight! I just finished my deviled eggs, unfortunately, w/o relish b/c I couldn't find any. I added the ol' universal seasoning instead, and there's a nice kick to it. Mandy's making potatoes, and we're also bringing ice cream! There's going to be about 10 of us, so... good times! See, good food can be had here w/o ever leaving the dorms. It's amazing what can be accomplished on two measely hot plates!

I've got two field trips this weekend, which I'm sure I'll fill you in on when I get back. Mandy and I are also going to book our flights to Paris w/in the next day or so. It's semi-expensive at $163 round-trip, but it's over Easter weekend and we're spending four nights there! We're going to see the real Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, Arc de Triumph, the Moulin Rouge, and I'm sure eat roughly 20lbs of pastries. I swear this trip is just one big smorgasboard for me...I love it! Au Revoir, sp?

Sil vous plait le Eiffel Tower (?!!?)

2006-02-27T22:18:00.000+01:00

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!

No, I'm not dead

2006-02-24T20:34:00.000+01:00

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.

Broadcasting Live from Prague...

2006-02-20T20:46:00.000+01:00

(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.)

Squoze, Past Tense of Squeeze

2006-02-20T20:24:00.000+01:00

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!

Yay... I did some exciting stuff!

2006-02-17T23:02:00.000+01:00

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...)