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