"Thank you, Helmet!"

“We’re a dream a baby’s having...” (How I Met Your Mother starts this week!) So the big talk around town, especially being a study abroad student, is the fact that a prohibition on hard alcohol is currently going on in the Czech Republic. 20 people have died so far but don’t worry, Mom it really doesn’t affect me since I tend to stick to beer and wine. Even though coming here you would want to visit the green fairy a few times, I can wait for it to pass. 

Meanwhile this was first week of classes. I have class Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Yes, that means I have four-day weekends - life is rough. I’m taking multiculturalism, art and architecture with a teacher who Rachel and I have agreed resembles Umbridge and Global Economy, which I’ll probably fall asleep in every week. I’ve also decided to add a gender studies class just for fun because 1) my teacher is British 2) girl power 3) my teacher showed us this the first day of class:

Remember to vote!

Speaking of One Direction, Marisa, Erica and I definitely witnessed the whole bands’ doppelgangers coming out of the metro earlier this week. We also were flipped off by a man holding his adorable chocolate lab on the escalator when all we did was smile out of puppy envy. Oh, now I get it…the smiling blew our cover of being American. Anywho…BONES.

This weekend we visited the village of Kutna Hora where we got to see the famous bone chapel! It contains bones of about 40,000 plague victims, which are arranged into everything from chandeliers to the coat of arms of the Schwarzenberg noble family. 

The moment I chose to study abroad in Prague this is what I instantly looked forward to after browsing through Lyndsey’s backpacking pictures. It had the feel of being in Pirates of the Caribbean (you would have loved it, Molly!) and with our awesome tour guide, who must have some Addam’s family blood in him with his mad-scientist persona and a voice straight out of the Haunted Mansion ride it made such a creepy place feel more complete. For example, he felt it necessary to explain that the only thing you can do at the bone church is plan your funeral. Yeah, can’t say that’s one of my priorities while studying abroad at the age of 20. After going to the bone chapel we headed over to the St. Barbora Cathedral where I’m not kidding: a real golden snitch is hidden. (Pretty sure all the bones of the seekers are next door). It is the finest example of late gothic in Bohemia.

Erica, Rachel, Me, Marisa, and Arica

We ended the trip by suiting up ;) for the Medieval silver mines, which is not recommended for anybody who is the slightest bit claustrophobic. Kutna Hora was the second most important town of medieval Bohemia and competed with Prague for political power and prestige. We got to walk through the actual dark, slippery, narrow tunnels of the silver mines and if it weren’t for our hard hats I would be in very much pain right now. “Pitch black” also has a whole new meaning to my eyes (no pun intended) because in order to experience what it would have been like to get lost in the darkness of a mine we had to turn off our flashlights at one point. This has been the best field trip by far!

Note to self:

• Don’t go to Yes, Burger in the hopes of it tasting the way you’ve always imagined Good Burger to taste like.
• Free Sangria Night (for girls) is on Tuesdays at Bukowski's 
• Hang-drying my underwear is something I may never get used to
• the grocery store Albert has jalapeños 

Shout out to best friends, neighbor gents, and all my lib studs I hope your first week of classes went wonderfully!

Kde je communist?

I’ve officially been in Prague for two weeks now! Week one went by strangely slow because of the jetlag and incredibly long days but I can’t believe week two is now over. On Thursday we went on a walk, lead by Richard this time, and finally got to see the baby tower up close and personal. The Zizkov Tower was constructed in order to block any incoming western radio and television transmissions, so it’s not surprising that this tower has a history of being unloved by Prague locals. The artist David Cerny then placed the babies on the tower as a temporary exhibit post-communism, but people liked them so much they decided to keep them there. My theory is that the baby creator threatened to bring these things to life and they kept them out of fear of being controlled by artificial intelligence because in my opinion it’s just creepy. Speaking of babies, I seem to be especially observant of the kids and puppies here. Foreign children are just especially adorable and the dog count is increasing at an exponential rate. Dogs without leashes, dogs in purses, dogs in baby slings, dogs in strollers, you name it!

Later that day we went to the Communist museum, which we found thanks to the McDonald’s signs ironically guiding our way. It was a very well done walk-through of communism in the Czech Republic with displays, artwork, graffiti walls, and videos. It was just surreal to think that the street we walked onto just moments after walking through the museum is the same street that thousands of people were fighting for their rights nearly 20 years before. Where students were being beaten, sprayed down with water, and dragged by the police, there now stands McDonalds, malls, and cafes filled with tourists. It made me really anxious to start my classes for the history aspect of this part of Europe and hopefully hear Jan talk more about what it was like being in his 20s during the time.

The rest of the weekend included Czech country music, a giant hot dog, and a hike. On Saturday there was a wine festival at the castle. It was basically a ton of people and a ton of walking because we couldn’t even find the right place to go. We gave up because at the time a foot long hot dog sounded better than expensive wine. On Sunday we went on a hike, lead by Honza, to Ceské stredohorí which is a spectacular hillside of volcanic origin 40 miles North of Prague. We hiked to the Kost’al mountain with the castle ruins Kost’alov on the top. We had to walk through neighborhoods that made us feel like we were trespassing, and it was definitely more demanding than last week’s hike. We were a little skeptical of Honza since he first misplaced our tickets, then he kept checking the map and every time there was a fork in the road it seemed like he was just guessing we were going the right way. We eventually made it to the top of some castle ruins and made the long way back after stopping for lunch in the middle of nowhere. We were all exhausted by the end of the day especially since half the group seems to be catching the sickness that is going around.

Luckily, the train ride there and back was a lot more comfortable than last week since we had individual compartments and it wasn’t a million degrees. It actually felt like I was on the Hogwarts Express. However, just because there’s a man sitting in what appears to be his black robes next to you does not mean he is a professor at Hogwarts and probably did not carry chocolate with him in case of the arrival of some unwanted dementors. Oh yeah, it’s also really fun to stick your head out the window of a moving train. 

Lenka

Done with Czech Language and got an A! I could take it for the full semester but I think I’ve been lost in translation long enough…at least in a classroom anyways. Earlier I accidentally said I dance every morning and let’s face it I will never be able to say the number 4! (čtyři) My teacher, Lenka, was OSM* though (hehe Czech humor, please refer to footnotes). She would teach us common phrases like “Na Zdravi!” – “to good health” said when they cheers, “opici” which actually means “monkey” but it’s the equivalent to “hungover”, and “Fakt” - excuse my Czech, but that just means “really”.

Last day of Czech class with Lenka!

Lenka also taught us about Czech culture a bit. Here they not only celebrate birthdays but also your “name day”. So all the Karels will celebrate one day, all the Rachels, which is today, will celebrate one day and so on. Unfortunately MacKenzie doesn’t have a name day here, but I'm not surprised since 1) it's not Czech and 2) adults haven't been able to accept the fact that MacKenzie is indeed my first name since the first day of kindergarten. She also told us to not be offended when Czech people are rude. She explained that it’s not because we are American, it’s because they are just mean. So more of a it’s not me it’s them type thing…or that’s how I’ll interpret it. I guess I need to stop smiling in order to somewhat assimilate into this place. Eh…nevermind, that’s like asking a kid not to smile at Disneyland. I mean, if you’re surrounded by castles you are going to feel like a princess. Even though Czechs never seem to be in the best mood they must have a sense of humor with ads like this around: 

Also, Lenka told us they only say “I love you” in a romantic way, so they only tell their children “I like you”. Yet, they can say things like “Miluju jablkos” which would mean I love apples. So you can love apples but not your own child? Ok then… They also don’t tell their children they are proud of them or really any type of positive feedback. But they will say things like “you did terrible on that test!” hmmm…did I just solve the mystery of their unhappiness? Hierarchy of needs anyone? Maslow had something to say about self-esteem I believe.

In other news:

Some friends and I decided to visit Prague Castle Monday where we got some more zmrzlina! This is in front of St. Vitus Cathedral. I’m looking forward to coming back when I actually know some history about this place.

p.s. glad you guys are enjoying my blog! Miss you all! Get excited because next post involves one word: BABIES.

*osm: means 8 but pronounced like awesome, if you understand Czech, Lenka in fact is not 8 just to clarify.

Week Jedna

The Czech language course started this week, which means sitting in a classroom for 4 hours a day but my teacher, Lenka, is great and keeps teaching us the essentials. I know how to greet and ask for ice cream, beer and some other basics but it’s still intimidating and I’m sure I look like a lost child every time someone starts speaking Czech to me at the grocery store but hopefully that will pass soon. BEST FRIENDS: if you recall the app on my phone that we would practice saying our names backwards with, THAT is exactly what Czech sounds like just to give you an idea how funky this language is. Throughout the week, we’ve been trying to do some exploring on our own like go to parts of Old Town and Charles Bridge but it was super hot that day and a lot of tourists so I’m sure we’ll be back to those parts another time. Many young Czechs turned to John Lennon as an inspiration during the communist era so the "Lennon Wall" pictured above has been filled with John Lennon inspired graffiti and pieces of Beatles lyrics. 

Enjoying some Strawberry Cider after the really hot walk to Charles Bridge with Erica!
Pivovarsky Pub under K17.

A sculpture by David Černý on Husova Street. It's probably
Sigmund Freud or Lenin - David Černý always mystifies people,
so when you meet him, he may say it was even someone else!

Thursday we went on the "Farewell booze cruise" since it would be too cold to say our goodbyes on the river in the middle of December. Instead, we're on a boat week one when we still don't even know everyones names. We first went on a walk around Old Town and passed through the National University Library Klementinum, saw the 17th Century student statue, and walked along the river Vltava from the Charles Bridge downstream.

We still don’t have internet but it better kick in soon. We went on a hike, which was described as "not very demanding" but it was about 4 hours of walking up/down hill. We didn’t know what to expect, especially since our internet has been down and we can’t even check the emails that are sent to us. We went to the countryside about 20 miles southeast of Prague and it was beautiful! We also went into a cool church and cave but the lack of information given to us on this trip was a bit disappointing so my apologies. At one point some friends and I had stayed back, “Team Tortoise” as Arica had nicknamed us, and  got separated by the rest of the group by taking the wrong turn at the fork in the road but we eventually got to the top of the mountain for an amazing view of the village.  I’ve met some really great people so week one has definitely been a success!

Arica, Erica, Me and Marisa on top of the mountain!

Life in Prague:

• Beer is literally cheaper than water (pivo>voda)
• I’m eating too much nutella to make up for their lack of peanut butter
• I witnessed a girl barking in Winceslas Square
• Czechs are immune to smiling

Velvet Revolution

"When- if not now? Who- if not us?" -slogan of Czech
Students during Velvet Revolution

I’ve been here a few days now and Prague continues to confirm that it is the perfect city to live and study in. We’ve gotten lost a few times using public transportation and have gone to their version of a giant kmart maybe one too many times but no matter where you are standing on the cobblestone streets each building has it’s own character and charm. We went on a walk around New Town, which began in the 14th century...yeah not very new, which was lead by our program director Jan.  We made our way around Charles University campus and went through the Botanical Garden (don’t worry, definitely coming back to study the plants, lib studs). One of the highlights though was when we stopped at the memorial of the first protest on November 17, 1989 that sparked the Velvet Revolution that Jan actually took part of! Lenka, my Czech teacher, as well as Jan have been explaining how independence is still so new for the Czechs that they are still adjusting to their free lifestyle. This year they will even be voting for their own president.

We then walked along St. Ignacius church to the New Town City Hall and climbed too many stairs for an amazing view of Prague outside the windows of the tower. Prague has been nicknamed the "golden city of 1000 spires" because of all the towers and cathedrals there are to admire.We definitely deserved our zmrzlina (ice cream) afterwards at the famous "U Itala"! 

Trams don't stop!

Finally time to write! So after 18 hours of traveling and little to no sleep for the past 36 I arrived in Prague. My flight consisted of about an hour’s worth of sleep, thinking of hypothetical tragic situations while flying overseas, and a whole lot of Downton Abbey, Hunger Games, and Harry Potter- obviously the airline was notified of my tv and movie preferences. Frankfurt airport has quickly become one of my least favorite airports. I have had a fair share of airport experiences (sleeping in one earlier this summer which I do not recommend) but the hour in Frankfurt basically was me running from one end to the other while stopping at the ridiculously long line for security and I don’t know what I said to the guy in charge of the lines but he let me cut in front of basically everybody and I was able to get to my connecting flight in time with 10 minutes to spare. Upon arriving at my gate some German lady assumed I would want to answer questions about this lovely airport experience but I was too tired to try to get away. When I finally got on my last leg of flights they gave us cereal and some milk that definitely did not come from happy cows so DON’T drink it.

I met up with another girl in my program, Taylor and it was too complicated to figure out a payphone so we just used one of the taxis in the front hoping not to get Taken (just kidding Mom it was a very legitimate AAA taxi). Both of us being totally sleep deprived it still hadn’t hit us that we were in Prague and the fact that Rihanna was playing on the radio didn’t help. The taxi driver dropped us off at the address we pointed to but once he drove off we were left in front of a locked door having no idea what to do next. With no phone we knocked and finally some angry construction workers let us in. With the language barrier we couldn’t communicate with them and the front door locks so we were now locked in a dark building under construction. Finally one guy grabbed my suitcase and pointed that we had to climb up 5 flights of stairs (just like gypsum 502! ) but these stairs are about twice as long. After a lot of confusion we figured out our rooms, which are apparently less than half the size of the rooms in the other apartment complex but still a whole lot roomier than Sierra Madre or PCV. Starving, the few others that were there and I went to a random restaurant where we drank the first of many beers to come this semester and probably tipped the waitress way too much. 

Some things to note:

1. We love our bread, we love our butter but most of all Prague loves cauliflower...at our group dinner it was fried and at today’s lunch it was soup

2.  Old Town is SO beautiful. I’m not kidding Fantasyland is real and I live there!

3. Going to the 80s/90s music video bar is worth it even if jetlagged since I know more songs from those decades than the current one and dancing to Grease is just as fun as it was when I was 5.

4. They have a lot of bees here: Katie BEE WARNED….(or not ;) )

5. I’m surrounded by awesome people and the next 4 months is going to go by WAY too fast!
oh....and most importantly 6. TRAMS DON'T STOP!