Thursday, February 28, 2008
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Beer Country
To start off with, in case you were wondering, I have a horrible horrible cough. Excluding my horrible cough, it has been a good week. My classes do not seem too difficult (and with any luck will seem more interesting in future weeks). The weather is beautiful. I actually went out without my coat today, which is a first for Prague. Not including the time I have spent sleeping or reading in hopes that rest will cure my cough, everything since my last post has been very fun and we have had some amusing little experiences that are a wonderful part of the abroad experience.
Amusing experience #1: Kelsey and I are attempting to get on an exceptionally full metro. I decide (since we have just discussed in our Czech and American Culture class how Europeans have a much smaller concept of personal space and tend to bump into one another far more often) that I will just sort of push my way onto the train. I turn around to see that Kelsey is standing outside with a somewhat worried expression on her face. A man next to me looks at Kelsey, then at me (as I say her name), then back at Kelsey and promptly reaches out of the train, puts his arm around her shoulders and pulls her forcefully on the train, pushing a bunch of people farther onto the train in the process, right before the doors shut. I said "dekuju" (thank you) and promptly started to laugh.
Amusing Experience #2: Kelsey and I are checking out at the grocery store (Albert). The food costs 335 crowns, Kelsey gives the woman a 1000 and then 35 in coins so that she doesn't have to give her a bunch of coins. We both turn to put the groceries in bags (there is not such thing as a bag boy in the Czech Republic) and then Kelsey turns back, expecting her change. The woman has already started checking another person out behind us, and has not give Kelsey her change. Kelsey gets her attention and there ensues a fabulous Czech-American conversation in which no one understands anyone else. We unfortunately have not learned the word for 1,000 and so have no idea how to communicate to her what happened. She repeats the same question over and over (either how much did we give her or how much do we need back) apparently expecting us to spontaneously learn Czech. The result of this problem is that a manager comes over and they have to take out the till and count ALL of the money, to find out how much over they are and give Kelsey her money. So Kelsey and I stand awkwardly waiting while these two women talk back in forth in Czech (and I get the feeling that this has happened to this particular cashier on more than one occasion). When all is said and done, Kelsey gets her money back and we leave.
Amusing Experience #3: We went to Pilsn yesterday, home of Pilsner Urquell beer, and took a tour of the brewery. The tour itself was quite amusing, as they did not really show us any of the current brewery, but rather a lot of the out of use things. My favorite part was their exhibit of the three ingredients of beer (malt, water, and hops). In the malt room they had a bunch of malt on the floor and some fake waving grain (and by fake I mean posters of grain that waved back and forth). The water room was basically a fake wall of rock with water running down it. And the hops room has some hops in it (it looks like the alfalfa pellets we used to feed to our guinea pig). At the end of the tour they do a tasting. Now, apparently they require that you be the legal drinking age of your home country to taste the beer, so we told them we were from Canada (shame on us, I know). When we were down in the cellar for the tasting this group of Chinese men asked us where we were from (we said Canada) and responded excitedly "We are from China!" and then asked to take a picture with us.
So those are my amusing tidbits for now.
xxx
Amusing experience #1: Kelsey and I are attempting to get on an exceptionally full metro. I decide (since we have just discussed in our Czech and American Culture class how Europeans have a much smaller concept of personal space and tend to bump into one another far more often) that I will just sort of push my way onto the train. I turn around to see that Kelsey is standing outside with a somewhat worried expression on her face. A man next to me looks at Kelsey, then at me (as I say her name), then back at Kelsey and promptly reaches out of the train, puts his arm around her shoulders and pulls her forcefully on the train, pushing a bunch of people farther onto the train in the process, right before the doors shut. I said "dekuju" (thank you) and promptly started to laugh.
Amusing Experience #2: Kelsey and I are checking out at the grocery store (Albert). The food costs 335 crowns, Kelsey gives the woman a 1000 and then 35 in coins so that she doesn't have to give her a bunch of coins. We both turn to put the groceries in bags (there is not such thing as a bag boy in the Czech Republic) and then Kelsey turns back, expecting her change. The woman has already started checking another person out behind us, and has not give Kelsey her change. Kelsey gets her attention and there ensues a fabulous Czech-American conversation in which no one understands anyone else. We unfortunately have not learned the word for 1,000 and so have no idea how to communicate to her what happened. She repeats the same question over and over (either how much did we give her or how much do we need back) apparently expecting us to spontaneously learn Czech. The result of this problem is that a manager comes over and they have to take out the till and count ALL of the money, to find out how much over they are and give Kelsey her money. So Kelsey and I stand awkwardly waiting while these two women talk back in forth in Czech (and I get the feeling that this has happened to this particular cashier on more than one occasion). When all is said and done, Kelsey gets her money back and we leave.
Amusing Experience #3: We went to Pilsn yesterday, home of Pilsner Urquell beer, and took a tour of the brewery. The tour itself was quite amusing, as they did not really show us any of the current brewery, but rather a lot of the out of use things. My favorite part was their exhibit of the three ingredients of beer (malt, water, and hops). In the malt room they had a bunch of malt on the floor and some fake waving grain (and by fake I mean posters of grain that waved back and forth). The water room was basically a fake wall of rock with water running down it. And the hops room has some hops in it (it looks like the alfalfa pellets we used to feed to our guinea pig). At the end of the tour they do a tasting. Now, apparently they require that you be the legal drinking age of your home country to taste the beer, so we told them we were from Canada (shame on us, I know). When we were down in the cellar for the tasting this group of Chinese men asked us where we were from (we said Canada) and responded excitedly "We are from China!" and then asked to take a picture with us.
So those are my amusing tidbits for now.
xxx
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Sleepy
This week has been interesting, though some of it has been rather boring. I am enjoying learning Czech and feel a little bit better about it, though not much. it is frustrating to know that you are never pronouncing anything 100% correctly. I really enjoyed the lecture from Professor Shanahan this week, he is an American who has lived abroad for the last 15 years or so, primarily in Paris and Prague. He seems to think we will not be here long enough to experience extreme culture shock, but the end of May seems pretty far away to me. Luckily I have not found anything to be all that scary or different. There are a lot of little things though. For example, in the movie theater they actually assign seats (and it is kind of hard to find your seat in the dark -- i suppose if you go earlier they probably have the lights on while people are coming in). We have finally figured out how you are supposed to tip, and approximately how much (between 5 and 10%). When you give them the money for the check (let's say its 130 czk) then you tell them how much you are actually giving them (for example 140czk) and then they will give you the rest of the change. You are not supposed to leave it on the table.
On Friday we had a reception at CERGE with some Czech students. It was nice to actually speak with some Czech people. I know we will meet more Czech students when classes start, but it is a little strange to be living in a country and have only the briefest interaction with the people who actually live there. We met a couple of really nice girls at the reception and I hope that we will see more of them.
I am currently feeling a little sick, sore throat and all, but its not too bad. I stayed in bed most of the day in an attempt to fight it off, but I am still tired. Kelsey and I went out to dinner with the other Kelsey and Emily who live downstairs. We had chinese food which was really good. I like the neighborhood we live in. It seems like there are a lot of nice places to eat, and I really like having the Church and its little park outside (except when the Church bells ring incessantly).
I start real classes on tuesday!!! I am guessing that it will be really hard to be in class all day, since I haven't really done that in a long time, but its only two days a week that I have to be there all day. On Wednesday we are planning to go to the opera. We can apparently get tickets in the very back for just a couple of dollars. Also, on the 28th we are planning a trip to Dublin for Kelsey and our friend Alison's birthdays. Alison's birthday is the 28th and Kelsey's is March 1st). We are really excited. We are going to "couch surf." There is apparently this website that is a network of people who basically let people stay in their homes for free, and then in return they can stay in other people's homes for free. Our friend Julia is on the website, and Alison, Julia, and Hannah couch surfed when they went to Vienna and they said it was really fun.
On Friday we had a reception at CERGE with some Czech students. It was nice to actually speak with some Czech people. I know we will meet more Czech students when classes start, but it is a little strange to be living in a country and have only the briefest interaction with the people who actually live there. We met a couple of really nice girls at the reception and I hope that we will see more of them.
I am currently feeling a little sick, sore throat and all, but its not too bad. I stayed in bed most of the day in an attempt to fight it off, but I am still tired. Kelsey and I went out to dinner with the other Kelsey and Emily who live downstairs. We had chinese food which was really good. I like the neighborhood we live in. It seems like there are a lot of nice places to eat, and I really like having the Church and its little park outside (except when the Church bells ring incessantly).
I start real classes on tuesday!!! I am guessing that it will be really hard to be in class all day, since I haven't really done that in a long time, but its only two days a week that I have to be there all day. On Wednesday we are planning to go to the opera. We can apparently get tickets in the very back for just a couple of dollars. Also, on the 28th we are planning a trip to Dublin for Kelsey and our friend Alison's birthdays. Alison's birthday is the 28th and Kelsey's is March 1st). We are really excited. We are going to "couch surf." There is apparently this website that is a network of people who basically let people stay in their homes for free, and then in return they can stay in other people's homes for free. Our friend Julia is on the website, and Alison, Julia, and Hannah couch surfed when they went to Vienna and they said it was really fun.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
First Classes
Dobrý den!
So we started learning Czech yesterday, it is just as difficult to pronounce as I thought it would be. My current issue is the number four (spelled čtyři). It is pronounced something like schtearzji. I like the professor though. I think we will learn a lot pretty fast with her. Although the numbers are really difficult to understand. Its not so hard to pronounce them, but when I hear them half of them sound the same. We also had a very boring lecture on Czech history today. Perhaps it would not have been so bad if it had not been 3 hours long. Admittedly it was more interesting than the visit to the National Library, which was decidedly dull. The professor who took us there was really nice, I cannot recall his name. I may or may not have him for one of my classes. He was very earnest about his love of the library (which made me feel a bit bad about being bored).
On Friday afternoon I walked up to Prague castle. Its extremely difficult to take a good picture of because it is surrounded by another building and you cannot see the whole thing until you are about 30 feet from the entrance (not a good place to take a picture of a tall building). It was really beautiful out, and I wish my camera took better dusk pictures. I really do love this city.
The weekend was pretty relaxed. We went to an Irish pub in Old Town square on Saturday. It was nice, but there were too many of us to fit comfortably at a table. We briefly went to a bar called Bombay, but it was really crowded and no one really wanted to stay, so we walked home. Its a pretty long walk back to our apartment. Luckily it was a nice night out, and walking with people is usually fun regardless of how far you have to walk.
I am still looking forward to real classes starting, but I am glad to have something to do during the day besides sight seeing. I am a little worried about how our three hour long classes will be. If they are much like the lecture today I will definitely struggle to pay attention. My attention wanes after about an hour and half. I guess we will see. Hopefully they will be interesting enough classes to keep my attention.
xxx
So we started learning Czech yesterday, it is just as difficult to pronounce as I thought it would be. My current issue is the number four (spelled čtyři). It is pronounced something like schtearzji. I like the professor though. I think we will learn a lot pretty fast with her. Although the numbers are really difficult to understand. Its not so hard to pronounce them, but when I hear them half of them sound the same. We also had a very boring lecture on Czech history today. Perhaps it would not have been so bad if it had not been 3 hours long. Admittedly it was more interesting than the visit to the National Library, which was decidedly dull. The professor who took us there was really nice, I cannot recall his name. I may or may not have him for one of my classes. He was very earnest about his love of the library (which made me feel a bit bad about being bored).
On Friday afternoon I walked up to Prague castle. Its extremely difficult to take a good picture of because it is surrounded by another building and you cannot see the whole thing until you are about 30 feet from the entrance (not a good place to take a picture of a tall building). It was really beautiful out, and I wish my camera took better dusk pictures. I really do love this city.
The weekend was pretty relaxed. We went to an Irish pub in Old Town square on Saturday. It was nice, but there were too many of us to fit comfortably at a table. We briefly went to a bar called Bombay, but it was really crowded and no one really wanted to stay, so we walked home. Its a pretty long walk back to our apartment. Luckily it was a nice night out, and walking with people is usually fun regardless of how far you have to walk.
I am still looking forward to real classes starting, but I am glad to have something to do during the day besides sight seeing. I am a little worried about how our three hour long classes will be. If they are much like the lecture today I will definitely struggle to pay attention. My attention wanes after about an hour and half. I guess we will see. Hopefully they will be interesting enough classes to keep my attention.
xxx
Friday, February 8, 2008
Having Fun
This week in Praha....
The construction guys relaxed a little and are no longer being excessively loud. We figured out the washing machine, although we are not exactly sure how to use the fabric softener in the washing machine. This means that our towels are rather crispy when they dry. I am sure we will get the hang of it eventually. Kelsey and I are having fun making dinner for ourselves. We haven't screwed up anything yet, but we aren't exactly amazing cooks.
I took a long walk by myself the other day, which was really nice. I was feeling a bit overwhelmed being around people all day every day and it was nice to just be alone and listen to music. Also, its nice to walk around with no destination because then you don't feel lost even when you don't know where you are or where you are going. Prague is good that way because there are so many towers that you can always walk towards one and figure out where you are when you get there because all of the churches are in pretty well known spots and by the metro and all that.
We have gone out a lot to some different clubs. Klub Cross was really interesting because the decor is all old electronics and different industrial parts and it looks like a giant robot. There are all sorts of weird levels and rooms and its kinda confusing, but really cool. The music was also a bit bizarre, Kelsey describes it as "techno music with heavy metal, adding in video game sounds and really deep base." Thats pretty much the best description of it. It goes with the crazy decor. We had a lot of fun on Monday when we went to "Pirate Kareoke" at BlindEye. There was nothing about Pirates, but it was still fun. Kira and I sang "Fly Me to the Moon" :). The picture is of Hannah, Kelsey and me at the BlindEye.
Today Kira and I met the other two girls who are working with Cafe Abroad, which is this internet study abroad guide and travel magazine. Its a pretty cool concept. You can check it out at CafeAbroad.com. We have to review restaurants, concerts, attractions and such. Also we are supposed to write articles that they may use in the in print version of the magazine. From what I gather they have a bunch of people write articles so that they have a good base from which to choose them. We'll see how well we do with it. The girls are really nice and its interesting to hear about the other programs. One of them, Molly, is doing a homestay through the CIEE program. She says she really enjoys it. She lives out in Prague four, which I think is pretty far from the center, but I guess the school where she is taking classes is out there as well. She has had two weeks of intensive Czech already, and I am jealous because she can order food in Czech and I definitely can't. Lauren, the other girl, is staying in a dorm which she says looks like and old communist building. It doesn't seem like she likes that situation too well, and she does not have a kitchen so she is spending a lot of money on eating out. We have also met some people from other programs through some of the members of our program or just randomly when we are out. There seem to be a lot of American students around. I guess that is good and bad.
Still can't wait for classes to start, even if we are enjoying ourselves. :)
xxx
Monday, February 4, 2008
Living in Prague
I am very glad that we are getting a good price on our apartment, because I had no idea that under renovation meant that there would be hammering on saturday morning. Perhaps the Czech work ethic is better than the american one, because I am pretty sure construction workers in the United States do not work on the weekends (or really ever). I am holding out hope that they are simply trying to complete a specific project quickly and will relax in a week or two. Its not really that bad, because they don't start too early, but its still not the most pleasant thing to wake up to.
Other complaints? I killed some of my clothes in the Czech Washing machine... who knew that you had to put it on a different setting for synthetics??? I am crossing my fingers that I can turn my now grey white clothes back with a bottle of bleach. Our shower has a tendency to flood because the drain is clogged (thats nice). Also, the internet is still not working, and we can no longer pirate the internet from other people (they seem to have caught on and password protected their signals).
I am currently writing from a school computer.
On a happier note...
Tesco, which is like the European equivalent of Wal-Mart is insane. It is five stories and somewhere in between a grocery store and a department store. Basically we can buy anything there. We may get a DVD player, if we ever get up the courage to test out the Czech video rental by the apartment.
Everyone in our program is wonderful. I am really enjoying getting to know people. We also have a few new people trickling in slowly (as they get their visas) and I am excited to meet them.
We apparently have this entire week to do nothing (I am not sure why they planned it this way, it seems a bit silly)...so I am not sure what we are going to do. Some people are traveling, but as Kelsey and I just did that, we will probably just spend this time trying to get to know Prague. It really is a beautiful city. I haven't taken any photos yet, but there are a million places I want to photograph. I really wish that the US had places this interesting. Kelsey and I have discussed how there is plenty of natural beauty in the States, but less architectural beauty than you find in Europe.
Yesterday we completely vegged out. It was wonderful. I think all four of us feel completely at home in our apartment already. After so much traveling and walking and general nomadic lifestyle it felt really good to have a place to relax. Czech TV is interesting. We have a few English channels: CNN, CNBC, EuroSport2, MTV, VH1, some sort of outdoor channel amd maybe one other. There is also a french channel which I can kind of understand, and a classical music channel that you don't need to understand. Other than that everything is in Czech and thus impossible to understand. I think its kind of fun to watch anyways.
I can't believe we have a whole week before we start classes!! I am already really impatient. Sigh.
xxx
Other complaints? I killed some of my clothes in the Czech Washing machine... who knew that you had to put it on a different setting for synthetics??? I am crossing my fingers that I can turn my now grey white clothes back with a bottle of bleach. Our shower has a tendency to flood because the drain is clogged (thats nice). Also, the internet is still not working, and we can no longer pirate the internet from other people (they seem to have caught on and password protected their signals).
I am currently writing from a school computer.
On a happier note...
Tesco, which is like the European equivalent of Wal-Mart is insane. It is five stories and somewhere in between a grocery store and a department store. Basically we can buy anything there. We may get a DVD player, if we ever get up the courage to test out the Czech video rental by the apartment.
Everyone in our program is wonderful. I am really enjoying getting to know people. We also have a few new people trickling in slowly (as they get their visas) and I am excited to meet them.
We apparently have this entire week to do nothing (I am not sure why they planned it this way, it seems a bit silly)...so I am not sure what we are going to do. Some people are traveling, but as Kelsey and I just did that, we will probably just spend this time trying to get to know Prague. It really is a beautiful city. I haven't taken any photos yet, but there are a million places I want to photograph. I really wish that the US had places this interesting. Kelsey and I have discussed how there is plenty of natural beauty in the States, but less architectural beauty than you find in Europe.
Yesterday we completely vegged out. It was wonderful. I think all four of us feel completely at home in our apartment already. After so much traveling and walking and general nomadic lifestyle it felt really good to have a place to relax. Czech TV is interesting. We have a few English channels: CNN, CNBC, EuroSport2, MTV, VH1, some sort of outdoor channel amd maybe one other. There is also a french channel which I can kind of understand, and a classical music channel that you don't need to understand. Other than that everything is in Czech and thus impossible to understand. I think its kind of fun to watch anyways.
I can't believe we have a whole week before we start classes!! I am already really impatient. Sigh.
xxx
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Sigh
So our internet is currently malfunctioning... I am stealing someone's wireless at the moment. My attempt to upload photos has been slow and minimally successful. I only got 17 of the Paris photos up and the apartment photos. You will have to bear with me. Its going to take awhile, unless we get our internet fixed tomorrow. I will try to be patient and upload more photos tonight if I can. The picture in this post is of the square where we live. Our building is the yellow one on the very left edge (I will take a picture of it later - right now its too dark out, so I'm taking this one from another website). The Paris pictures are in no particular order because they uploaded weird and I do not have the patience at the moment to reorganize them. We are still having fun - spent today enjoying the fact that we can just laze around...because we actually have a place to do it in.
So you can look at the photos I have managed to upload at
http://picasaweb.google.com/mariss.carol
Thats all for now
xxx
Friday, February 1, 2008
Moved In!
We have officially moved into our apartment!! I have a home!
It is awesome, and I cannot wait to go shopping....which we are doing shortly. We had a bit of a work out getting our bags up to the fourth floor without an elevator (Kelsey and I did better than Kira and Emily cause we're so used to it by now). I am sharing a big bed with Kelsey because they couldn't move in two twins -- but its big and technically has two mattresses, so its all good. We need some decorations..its pretty cause its very bright, but the walls are very bare.
Orientation was fairly useless and they were really unorganized, but we got transportation passes and met everyone, so I guess its okay. I really like everyone in our program. A bunch of other people from the program are living in the same building as us, so that should be great. Today we walked around Prague and tried to get a little more oriented to the city. Then we moved and unpacked and all that. It is so nice to have an apartment. I will take pictures, and maybe tonight or tomorrow night I will try to put all of the ones we've taken so far on the computer and then upload them to an album online. Its going to be a project, so I appologize if it takes a long time. I am sure everyone wants to see pictures :)
I need to go wake Kelsey up to go shopping.
xxx Marissa
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