I wrote this on 9.19.11 ... not sure why I didn't post it? Zoo, Italian, and the start of classes

Friday night we went to the opera again!  It was absolutely fantastic.  It was by Mozart, which meant that it was slightly less eventful than your average opera (Mozart is known to have boring operas) but I absolutely loved it.  First, it was in German.  Which, as someone who watches German soap operas, and absolutely loves German, was very exciting for me.  Second, the music was just absolutely fantastic.  And the set.  Considering the opera we saw last Tuesday was pretty tame on the set/costume front, it was nice to see an opera which embraced more of the tech side of things.  The seats we had, however, were ridiculous.  Opera houses were built for accoustics, so they go straight up, and we got tickets free through CIEE, so naturally we were as high as you could get.  And we could see literally nothing unless we leaned waaayyy forward.  But it was worth it.

And Saturday we went to a really beautiful Italian restaurant on the Vltava River.  It was actually on a boat.  It was really beautiful.  And I had delicious salmon ravioli.  It was fabulous.  

And on Sunday we went to Prague Zoo!!  It was possibly the best zoo I've ever been to, no joke.  They had so many baby animals, it was so amazing.  And they were all so cute!!  It started raining on us, which sucked a bit, but despite being a bit (okay, more than a bit) damp, we made it through in one piece, and with cute pictures of animals!  So have some pictures:

Their ears!!

This reminded me of Frank.  Lauren, I'm looking at you.

This zoo had so many turtles, I want one so badly.

Giraffes are such beautiful animals, and I swear there was a pair of them just standing there staring at us with these patient eyes like they'd seen it all.  They are so expressive.

Another baby.

Such gorgeous animals.  These two nuzzled each other, and it was so sweet.

In any case, it was a good day.  Other than that, classes started today!  I'm really excited.  I'm still taking Czech language, and then I'm taking a class called Czech National Identity, which I'm so excited for.  We had this really interesting conversation about being a foreigner, and what it meant to be an American (how we identified as a whole/unified nation, how it is so incredibly different than how it works here in the Czech Republic/a lot of Central Europe).  It was great.  I'm also taking a class called The History of Jews in Bohemia, which should be really really cool.  It's taught by 1 of only 3 official Rabbis in the entire CR.  It's amazing.  And he's from Chicago, so the congregation that he works with is all in English, which means I'll probably be attending some events this coming week.  I'm really excited.  And we have a couple day trips planned, and a lot of outings around Prague as well, so it should be really great.

The last class that I had today was a gender course, which I am probably most excited for (after the National Identity course).  I'm just so excited to learn about how they identify gender here, considering the construction of the language is so gender based (actually, like all romantic languages, as well) where you have to use the correct endings to your verbs in accordance to your gender, or the gender of the person you are speaking to/about.  I can only imagine, considering how difficult it is in the US for people who don't identify as the gender people perceive them as, that it must be even more difficult here considering the very basis of their language resists change, or rather gender fluidity.

In any case, that's about all I have at the moment.
Much love!

Why I love this city to death:

So, I may already have spoken about how awesome our location is, but I'm going to again because I can.

First: we live down the street from a really convenient metro(underground/subway) and tram station, so we can get everywhere super easily.  Second: these stations also happen to be on this beautiful square with a giant freaking gorgeous church oh my god I can't even explain.  And we get to see this every day (každy den, if you will).  And it's amazing.  Not only that, but we live on an equally cute square in which two nights ago, we heard accordion music, looked out our window, and street performers were just wandering around in costume!!  They were in gypsy type outfits, a couple with face paint, or masks, and 2 people on stilts!  It was freaking amazing!

STILTS!!!

They were so cute. We think they were promoting something, but we couldn't make out what exactly.  Regardless they got quite a lot of people's attention. 

And the last two afternoons there have been festivals in the square by the church.  Yesterday it was some kind of fundraiser for an evangelical church? The translation was a little sketchy, so we're not entirely sure that's correct, but there was a stage and girls doing Irish stepdance (really surreal to see that in Prague, let me tell you), and a bunch of cute little booths selling random goods.  And then today, I got back from Czech class and there was another little fair/festival setting up, and it turned out to be a kind of scaled down renaissance festival type thing.  There were all these booths with handmade goods, and all of them were kind of like the "traditional old Czech jobs" as one of the booth workers tried to explain to us.  It was amazing.  There was beautiful handcrafted jewelry, amazing knick-knacks, and great food.  

Martha and I got some food, and just sat on the steps of the church and watched the people mingle in the booths.  I love this city with everything that I have.

The beautiful church I get to see every day, during the Irish festival thingy

And tonight I'm going to see an opera.  I just, do not have enough words to express how excited I am every day to be here, and how amazingly blessed I feel to be able to experience all of this culture, and with such ease.  I expected to have to search for experiences like these, not just have them arrive on my doorstep.  I feel so lucky.

Anyway, that's enough of me gushing for today.  Real classes start Monday!!  I'm so excited!

Much love!

Alyssa

Day Trip 9/10/11

Day Trip to Kutna Hora

So this church was decorated with the bones of 40 thousand people.  Evidently, they ran out of room in a cemetery, so they dug up the bones of these people, which were 300 years old, and created 4 massive pyramid/piles, a chandelier, a coat of arms, and other interestingly creepy stuff.

St. Barbaras Church: the second-largest gothic cathedral in the Czech Republic, next to St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague Castle

 

Troja Chateau.  The wine festival was set up on the other side of the home, and was absolutely filled with people and stands.

Gorgeous staircase.

This statue was entitled 'Sigmund Freud' and has increasingly smaller versions of himself on each pedastal. Super cool.

Zeus threatening a Cherub?

And then randomly this statue.  It seems a little out of place. Just me?

Wine Festival!

So this weekend was absolutely fabulous.  I'm finally feeling better, though still a little bit tired, but I think that's just normal school/external stress now.  So yay! 

Friday we had Czech class, of course.  All last week was intensive Czech.  Which was.. definitely intensive.  We have learned basically everything we need to navigate around Prague (ie we can now order food in Czech, say hello/goodbye, ask how much something is in a shop, etc.) although we have yet to learn how to as "Where is the bathroom?"... hmm.  Counting is hard.  The numbers 3 and 4 are literally unpronouncable for anyone who grew up not making the sounds that Czechs do.. so we can come close, but it's kind of hilarious sometimes hearing us try to say them.  Last Friday on the tram we were quickly running through the words for 'who' 'what' 'where' 'when' etc. and we kept getting confused, and there was a lady on the tram who was watching/laughing at us lightly, and then she would step in every once and a while to affirm a decision we made.  At the time, it felt super awkward, but thinking back, if I were on a train in the US and a bunch of college girls were standing there, saying 'who...what...where...when...why?' I'd laugh too! 

Fun fact: one way to say hello informally is to say "Ahoj"-- pronounced "Ahoy!" which just makes me happy.

Anyway, so yesterday was a fabulous day.  We went in the morning to the opera house in Prague, and bought tickets for La Traviata!  So we're going to see that tomorrow night!  I'm so excited.  And then Martha and I wandered around for a bit, went to Wenceslas square, saw a rap battle/demonstration going on with a banner saying "9/11 was an inside job" (This, I just found fascinating... like, I'm not offended, because it's clearly wrong, they legitimately think the US Gov blew up the 2 towers, but.. it's just not their country. Why do they care?  This fascinated me.) And we went to possibly the most amazing book store I have been in in my entire life.  It was literally 4 stories tall, and absolutely massive.  I'm a little bit in love, even if most of the books are in Czech.

After, we went to a wine festival up at Troja Chateau, which is freaking gorgeous.  The wine festival was beyond incredible.  There were so many people there, but it was great because they were all native Czechs, and it wasn't a touristy event.  There were so many people just hanging out, of all ages, and their dogs too, drinking some absolutely fabulous wine.  They have this thing here called Burcak, which is young wine, meaning it hasn't been fermented very long.  It is super sweet, and tastes almost like fruit juice.  But I quite enjoy it.  We walked around and took pictures for a bit, and then just pulled up a piece of grass in a nice little group and hung out in the shade all afternoon.

And then, last night Maya (our Czech flatmate-- who is actually Slovakian) cooked us dinner!  She made Cous-cous, and taught me what to do as she went along, which was very helpful.  We invited our neighbor over, as well.  He's originally from Indiana, but he's been living in Prague for 19 years today.  It was really fun.  We just had dinner, drank more fabulous wine, and talked about Czech customs all night.   He even lent us a book called The Czechs in a Nutshell which had Maya in fits of giggles. 

Okay, I'm making a promise now to start updating much more regularly so I don't forget things/ make such long entries.
Much love <3

Prague Pics part 1

 

 

Cathedral at Prague Castle

Statue at Prague Castle-- Czech defeating of invaders

Cute cafe/rooftops from Castle

View from Prague Castle

Cathedral in the center of Prague Castle

It is impossible to convey how spectacularly massive the cathedral is.

I couldn't even fit all of the cathedral in one shot, it is so incredibly massive.

Um.. some door/architecture.  I just love all the stone around Prague, and this was somewhere inside the castle.

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!

First Week in Prague!!

So Prague so far has met all of my expectations (which were fairly easy to meet).  The city is gorgeous, all of the architecture is amazing.  A mix of really gorgeous old old old stuff, and some more modern stuff (although even the "new" buildings are still  largely stone, and beyond beautiful).  The public transportation is freaking amazing.  I cannot even express how easy it is to get from one place to another.  Naturally, I'm a little sore from walking this much, but it's actually much less stressful going new places by the Metro (ie the tube, train, underground, subway whathaveyou) or by the Tram (ie the street cars) than it is driving new places in the US.  Or at least, I find it less stressful.  Especially the metro.  It's also what I categorize as very European, in that there are a lot of really cute small restaurants, bars, pubs, etc. that are easily within walking distance of wherever you are (I kid you not, from my window I can count at least 5 bars, 4 restaurants, and 2 little convenience shops).  In any case, I have a city bias because I've never lived in a downtown area, so I have always been fascinated by that kind of lifestyle.

This week is all orientation.  Everyone (or mostly everyone, the poor Irene victims are still straggling in a few a day, but they should all be here by Monday, hopefully) got here Monday morning, and we just chilled-- in true American style most of the group went out and got fairly shitfaced which looks like a growing trend (which in all honesty is rather concerning, because the people here are more reserved, and because they drink beer etc. from an earlier age, they can hold their alcohol much better- so acting like drunken idiots is basically a massive sign that you're a foreigner.. and considering that Americans have a kind of shaky reputation in European countries, I hope people cool it a bit in the next few weeks so I can stop feeling really ashamed of being a foreigner here).  But, in case you didn't know, the Czech Republic is very well known for their beer.  A common saying (or rather a generalization) is that beer here is cheaper than restaurants.  In restaurants they don't serve tap water, even though Prague water is totally safe to drink and actually tastes better than my water at home, so bottles of water are more expensive than pints of beer.  Pilsner is one of the more well-known native beer brands, and from what I've had it's pretty good- although my knowledge of beer is more than limited.  There is a bar/pub where they have a keg under each table, and 3 taps at the center of the table so you literally pour your own beer, and there's a little machine that keeps track.  It's actually really clever. 

So far we've done a few walking tours so we know where some important things are, and also so they know we can navigate our way around by tram/metro/bus.  And despite getting slightly lost on the Metro finding my way home yesterday afternoon after orientation, I think I'm getting the hang of it.  Although I'm sure it is definitely not the last time I'll take a train going in the wrong direction and have to switch sides at the next stop.  I got some really funny looks yesterday when I ran across the platform to catch the other train when I realized I was going in the wrong direction.

Today coming back from the study center I stopped at a little fruit stand right next to my metro stop, and picked out my little basket of strawberries.  But of course she didn't speak any English, and as of today my Czech vocabulary pretty much consists of 'hello,' 'please,' and 'beer'.  So of course I had no idea what to pay here and just kind of handed over 30crk (the exchange rate is 17 to 1) and hoped for the best.  She just nodded back and was like 'okay,' but I think I might have haggled that price down on accident.  But we start our intensive language classes next Monday, so maybe once I can speak a bit more I'll stop  by and apologize.

Okay well I think this is a sufficiently lengthy blog post!  I'll probably update this every other day or so, and tomorrow I think I'll put up pictures of my flat (the kids in our program are so spoiled, I think the standard of living that we're experiencing is above the average Czech, so I feel quite pampered) and the little square that we live on.

Much love!

PS. let me know if you want my phone # (it costs the same rates as in the US) or my mailing address.