Day Trips Around the Czech Republic

Last Monday was my first day of classes. I have all 5 classes on Monday and Wednesday so on those days I am at the school from 8:30 till 6:30. It is a long day. haha. On Tuesday and Thursday I just have to o into school at 8:30 for my 50 min class an then I am done. This will be great on Thursdays when I want to travel so I can get an extra head start! This is my first day of school picture for mom! So far I like everything for the most part. There is always alot of reading and I am trying to find the balance between work and play, with so much work to be done, but I'm having fun in the process!

As a CIEE student I am required to go on at least two trips. One overnight and one day trip. We had the day trips this weekend so on Friday I went to Terizin and Ludice. Both were very sad. During WWII two Czech assasin parishuted in and assasinated one of Hitlers right hand men. As punishment, Hitler randomly choose Ludice and devistated it. He murdered all the men, sent the women to concentration camps and then germanized the arian looking children and exterminated the rest. Then he burned the houses down, tore down whatever was left, dug up the dead and cut down trees so there would be absolutely nothing left of Ludice. There is now a bunch of memorials, gardens and such in commemoration.

We continued to Terizin. Terizin was one of the largest Jewish Gettos in the Czech Republic. It was were all the Jews were forced to live during WWII. We also visited The camp in Terizin. It is not a consentration camp as I had thought. Before Hitler it was used for political prisoners as a holding destination, before they were shipped to different Prisons. After the Jewish getto was established, the camp was used for disobedient Jews from the Getto and then as a holding destination before the Jews were shipped to concentration camps.

On Sunday I went on a much less melencoly trip. We explored art and achatecture outside of Prague. We went to an open air museam which was a collection of old Bohemain buildings, they had transported from all over Boheamia and from all different time periods. They also furnished the houses. It was very odd only because you would be in a room with an antique stove but then also with a vintage bed. We then traveled to another cute little city. There we had the best Czech food I've had since in the Czech republic. It started with a bowl of califlower soup then progressed to pork with a BBQ-ish sauce and fantastic dumplings and then for desert we got a slice of Tiramisu the size of a brick. I had to roll to our next destination, which were modern art exibitions and a museam. Because we are a school group we can do so much more than the average tourists. We got to climb to the top of the museam and go out on the roof. Here are some of the shots I have gotten from being on the roofs of places. haha.

Besides that I'm just enjoying my time in Prague! It is freezing here so the other day I decided to make Chicken noodle soup from scratch! I cooked the chicken and made the broth and everything was going fabulously until I decide that one bag of noodles was not sufficent. So I added another bag and by the end had made chicken noodle muck. It has the consistancy of a casserole, but I think it is still pretty good! We did a little exerimenting and found we could fry it and enjoy chicken noodle pancakes. I should probably just stick to apple crisp, but I'm having fun making cooking mistakes. haha.

But I must go now, class is calling. Please excuse my spelling, apparrently my spell check doesn't feel like working. I'm also having an internet delema so sorry the posts have been so few and far between. I miss you all! Please write!

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Weekend adventures in Praha-ha-ha-ha

On Thursday we went to the ballet at the National Theatre. Everyone dressed up and the theatre is gorgeous. Instead of one long ballet we saw four smaller pieces of all varieties. My favorite was a very modern piece with 10 male ballerinas and 10 trampolines. They each had their own personality, character and form of dance and what could be more fun then ballerinas on trampolines? The theatre was gorgeous, the only thing that put a damper on the evening was that we had our intensive Czech final the next day. But I just got it back and received an –A! This is fantastic considering it is 25% of my Czech grade!

Friday after my Intensive Czech final and scavenger hunt, I headed back towards home to find that there was a wine festival at the square by my apartment. They had a ton of little venders selling hand made goods, food, and burčak, a Czech specialty, which is basically premature wine. It is both sweet and sour and is very tasty. They also had people dressed up and performing. It was a lot of fun to participate in a Czech tradition with the locals. We tested the new wine and eat some traditional foods!

Saturday was so much fun! We went to Petrin Hill and say the rose gardens and imitation Eiffel tower on the top of the hill! There was also a fantastic view from the top of the hill! On the way down we discovered apple trees, and went from tree to tree climbing and collecting the most delicious apples. We ended up in the center of Prague castle after apple picking and then we all went home. Later that night my flat-mates and I were lost looking for one of our favorite hangout places and ran into some friendly Danish men who enjoyed our company for the remainder of the night.

We live really close to a bunch of other CIEE students, who all live in the same apartment building and so Sunday morning we made eggs, hash browns, and apple crisp with our thousands of apples and invited them over for brunch. Besides that we basically relaxed and got ready for our first week of real classes. Around 7 our Czech buddy/ flat mate took us to an Italian restaurant. It was amazing! I had gnocchi and then for desert, we had pancakes stuffed with ice-cream and fruit! All-in-all I’m having a great time! Of course I miss you all and I hate not being there for all the sports victories and blue-ribbon ceremonies, but time is flying and I will be home soon enough, wishing I was here. Haha. Love you all!

Mollywog

Flat-Mates and Castles

Hello again!

I thouht you might want to see who I am living with so here is a picture! On the far left is my roommate Katie, who is a Czech buddy and then Sarah and Emily live in the other room of the flat. We are drinking a Czech specialty! It is sort of like wine, but tastes like a mix of vinigar and apple cider. It is actually really tasty! We are at a really cool underground bar called U Sudu.

My flat is the only CIEE flat in the apartment building, but luckly there are three floors of CIEE students living right around the corner from us so Friday night me and my flatmates bought bre, bread, and wine and headed over to there place for stir fry. They are alot of fun and afterwards we continued the event and went to 80's dance night at a local dance club!

We did not have class yesterday, but we went on a feild trip to two different castles outside of Prague. I'm still tryin to figure out the weather. Up till yesterday it has been sunny and warm, which is nice, but I have few warm cloths, but yesterday when I decided to wear one of my few short pants, the temperture droped 20 degrees. So I was very thankful when we got a chance to tour the inside of our first attactions, Křivoklát Castle. There was a beautiful wedding there, but my favorite part of the tour was the torture chamber with real torture peices.

After that we had a fabulous three course lunch and then proceeded to climb to the second castle, Karlštejn, pictured to the right. We did a scavenger hunt were we ran around answering questions about price of admisions and hours of tourist operation.

Anyways, today was my day off! No classes or manditory trips so we all slept in and then went across the river later to shop. We also studied and made pancakes! All in all I'm having a great time! Tomorrow will be my second week of intensive Czech language and tomorrow after class some friends are planning to go to either the Titanic exibition or the museum. I also found out that my friends from Itily will be visiting Prague in October so I'm looking for some great places to bring them!

Na shledanou, till next time, miss you much!

Ahoj (Like a Pirates says) from Prague!

Czech it out! I finally arived in Prague Friday and this is my darling flat! Not ony is it pleasing to the eye but it is also very safe. There is a special lock that gets us in the front door and then two locks on our flat door, plus a dead bolt. I practically have to wish myself into it. I go to class in Vysehrad and I live up and to the right in Varšavská street. I take a tram and metro and then I have a good hike to the study center. On a good day it takes about 20 minutes. I catch the tram at Námĕsti míru which means peace square or something like that. In the middle of the square is this fabulous church!

Anyways, back to my flat. I share a room with a "Czech" buddy and then there are two other American girls that live here too! I have a giant closet, but not much to put in it. haha. I also have a cute little kitchen with everything I need. And of course there is a nicely furnished living/dining room. The bathroom is my favorite part! It is fabulous! We have two and a half bathrooms so there is no fighting over who showers first. The one connected to my room is the best! It has a giant bathtub!

I started intensive Czech language classes on Monday and I already had have a Czech quiz today. Imagine! My third day of class and I had a quiz! I am in the beginner class, but I feel like I'm in the fast track! In my head I sound very good, but I get nervous before I have to speak and what I say comes out completely wrong. I need to work on my pronunciation. Which is unfortunate because they say that the Czech people will forgive you for grammar and spelling, but pronunciation is the most important! Anyways we learn Czech language for about 4 hours in the morning sometimes more, with some breaks, for the next two weeks.

One up side to having Czech cass is I can now tell what I am purchasing in the grocery store. Saturday I stood in the dairy section for what seemed like an eternity trying to figure out what was creamer. Finally I went with something that showed a picture of it being poured into coffee. ha-ha. Then I proceeded to do the same thing in front of what I thought was the sugar... No splenda. I'm getting a little better now.

The 22 is when the real classes/fun begin. I'll still have Czech Monday-Thursday at 8:30, but at least it will be a change of pace! I got my schedule and you can see my classes on the right. They ended up being all almost back to back on Monday and Wednesday, so I can start traveling as soon as Czech is done Thursday morning! Meanwhile these next two weeks in the afternoon/night they have activities planned for us.

Last night we went to a giant place with pool, bowling, air hockey and of course a bar. There are bars everywhere in Prague! Pivó is Czech for beer by the way. I'm still not totally about bee but I had a kick ass rum and coke last night, made with Czech rum. It was delisous, just like drinking candy! Also Today we went on a guided tour of the town surrownding Prague castle. It was fun and I'll definatly go back to check out the inside. We had a great view of all of Prague and this is only one shot.

Anyways ust saying greetings from Praha! I love and miss you all!

Mollywog