Intensive Czech!

So, count on me to be one of the first to get sick on the program.  One week in, and I have tonsils the size of ping pong balls.  (tmi?)  But in any case, aside from a significantly lower energy level, I'm still pretty much ready to go.

Friday we took a trip South of the city (I think?  My inner compass is totally fucked) to see the hospital, so we know where to go if we get super sick (irony?).  And when we were on our way back, we stopped at this amazing park, which was huge and there was a place to rent roller skates.  Then we headed back here, and went on a boat cruise as a whole ciee group.  It was really beautiful floating along the Vltava river( which goes right down the middle of Prague), and seeing all the amazing architecture along the river.  They also had a lock and dam system that we got to experience, sitting in the little boat corral as the water level either rose or fell.  Later that night we just kind of wandered around in a smaller group, and eventually just chilled in a little pub.  They had a match from the US Open (tennis) on, which was really exciting for me.  Andy Murray was playing, and winning!  So, go US representatives.

Saturday was really fun!  We went to the Prague castle!  We walked through the gardens, which were gorgeous, and then up to the castle area, and saw some very beautiful sculptures.  Then we walked into the cathedral that's kind of dead center in the castle (it is also the most notorious part of the castle, though it isn't technically part of it).  It may be the most gorgeous cathedral I have ever seen (and there have been quite a few).  The stone and grandeur of it was just... I was awestruck.  I literally stood there touching one of the stone columns thinking about how much work went into making that, how many generations have passed since the stone masons first painstakingly carved each of the blocks, and how much work went into the building of it, and how the art of stone working and carving etc. has been lost over the centuries.  I mean, people still do it, but it is so different than actual gothic era architecture.  Saturday night was a night in for me, because I was so exhausted from the week, and was already sick.  Oh, but I did get a special treat of fireworks that night!  They were set off literally in the middle of the little square/cul de sac-ish-thing that I live on.  It was really cool!  Although very unexpected.  Apparently fireworks are a huge treat that people like to set off for birthdays etc.  So it must have been someone's birthday.

Yesterday was also a great day.  My roommate Martha and I got a tip from another student about a free opera, called Dalibor, being performed for free, at a park just outside of Prague (part of the 'Days of Prague' that's going on right now, with lots of cultural events etc), so we journeyed over there yesterday afternoon.  Except, when we got there off the tram, we weren't entirely sure which way to go.  So we just followed the massive group of people walking.  Unfortunately they were mostly walking (for a while) to this pool/recreation area that was pretty far into the park.  So we decided to keep walking from there, hoping to hit the opera eventually.  Long story short, we ended up doing almost a full loop around the park, and then walking to the center of it, where they where performing (it was a really cool wooded area, where the "stage" was kind of on a grassy valley area with a really good shady hill that people could sit on surrounding it only 2 sides).  So due to our massive hike (I kid you not, we walked at least 5k.  Or more.  We're not entirely sure because the map we finally found, didn't tell us.  At least not in English.) we missed the 1st act, out of 3.  But seeing as the opera was in Czech, we had little idea of what was going on in the first place.  While we were walking though we did have a legit interaction with a guard/police guy when we finally decided we were lost.  He informed us at that point that we had 2.5 km to go (he spoke barely any English, and we spoke almost literally 0 Czech). By this point, we were at least 2 or 3 km into our walk, and were just starting up a massive freaking hill.  It was exhausting.  (but totally worth it.  The opera was absolutely beautiful).

While we were there, Martha and I got hot dogs, except they did this really ingenious thing where they cut off the very end of a baguette, stuck it on a short stick/pole thing (except leaving the other end in tact) to make a hole thick enough to squirt some ketchup in it, and then stick the hotdog in.  It was so much easier to eat w/o having to worry about ketchup coming out the end of the bun or whatever.  It was really cool.  I think we need to bring this to the states.

Also, we had one of 2 really common czech dishes, which is fried cheese.  They take kind of a square block of cheese, about 1/2 an inch thick, and then deep fry it.  At the opera, they served it on a bun with ketchup.  It sounds kind of sketchy, but it was super tasty.

So today, we had our first day of "Intensive Czech", which we're doing for the first 2 weeks.  It was, indeed, intense.  We worked for about 3 hrs total, but we learned the czech alphabet, numbers, pronunciations, and basic greeting phrases.  It is not an easy language for me to grasp.  I keep wanting to revert to Spanish, and when we were saying the alphabet she called on me to read the first like, 10 letters, w/o having learned the alphabet yet, so I was basically guessing what each letter sounded like... not fun.  In any case, I have hope that this will work out.  It's just a matter of committing to memory what each letter sounds like, because when learning a new language, Spanish is so engrained in my head that things like how to pronounce a "J" is so very different in czech, and I get super confused.  In any case, it'll be really great to actually be able to interact, and feel less like an alien here in Prague. Even though, for the most part, everyone (even the poor police/guard guy) speaks at least a little English.

Oh! Which reminds me that yesterday when we were on the tram, we met a lady from Connecticut who is living here with her 2 kids (who are going to a French-speaking school?) and her husband (who works for Skype!).  So that was my 2nd super random encounter with an American here in Prague.  Actually, 3rd!  Last Thursday or something, Martha and I were eating at a Mexican restaurant down the street (which, is apparently very authentic.  I've been told that the Mexican embassy in Prague orders food from there, which is just cool).  and we were sitting on outside on the sidewalk table, and a group of young people our age-ish walked past, and were going into the restaurant waiting for a table, and we were like "Are they American?  I'm pretty sure they're speaking English), and it turns out that they were all English speakers.  So incredibly random.

Okay, I'm going to leave off here, because I feel like this is tremendously long, for which I apologize.  I may start blogging on a daily basis so it's more "bite-sized' rather than essay length.
Much love!