The October run down.......

The October run down...... went to some castles. Saw my lovely father this weekend :] Took a trip to the concentration camp Terezin. Unbelievable the things some people justify in their minds as being ok. Planned a trip to Greece. Trip to Greece was canceled. Currently struggling to get money back from the planned trip to Greece. Found a new favorite hide away known as The Globe, where the employees speak perfect english and they serve all American grub! And they have FREE wi-fi so I did spend a day studying there. Booked a flight to Rome, going next weekend. Have the metro system down pat now! Fall break came and went, now back to the daily grind? Found a great new restaurant when Pops was here, owned by an Irish and has a lovely Spanish waitress with great bruschetta! Failed at keeping a blog, promising to do better like I always do. Cant believe we only have one more week in October!

LAUNDRY TIME :[

Laundry in Prague is never a fun event.
We have three washers for a building that is housing
probably close to 700 people and zero dryers.
Signing up for a washer is painful. So hand washing
clothes is the most "convenient" and cheapest was to do
laundry..... Lets just say I am soooo thankful for
my washer and dryer back home and miss them LOTS!!
My bedroom is decorated with my wet clothes and it takes
two / three to dry! Bahh next to my mommy i think i miss
my laundry situation the most!

Weekend in Prague

Well well well, hello my American friends.

This weekend was most def. one to remember. But when isnt a
weekend in Prague not one to remember? It started out thursday
when i visited my Czech friend.. for simplicity we will call him Pavouk..
He made a delicious authentic Czech dinner for me. I wish I had taken
pictures because not only did it taste wonderful (probably
the best dinner i have had since i have been here) but
the presentation was just as great! I guess thats what
you get when an ex sous chef is cooking for you :]
Garlic Potatoes, ( taters = always part of
a Czech meal) Chicken with who knows what kind of tasty
spices, and salad! But the salad had a touch of Greek....
because i was responsible for making the dressing,
of course i used my moms recipe (balsamic vinegar, olive oil,
garlic, salt and pepa!) It was sooo comforting to finally
have a home cooked meal!

Friday... hmm it seems so far away i am trying to remember
what i did... well i know i had another great dinner
with Pavouk in St. Wenceslaus square....
ate something i never thought i would... raw beef
with garlic toast... again wish i had taken a
picture but it wasnt till later that i purchased
my new camera!

Saturday...I spent the day with my girls...
The few that stayed behind (everyone but 4 of us
went to Budapest, Hungary this weekend). Lois had
to take her LSAT's this weekend so we navigated our
way to her center... let me just tell you i am pretty sure i
will be able to get myself anywhere anyplace after
this semester in this Czech speaking capital!
Subway was our choice of lunch (i think i eat more
American food here than i did back home). And then we
ventured our way down to St. Wenceslaus Sq. It was here that
i found this adorable picture of this old man......

yes i kept it....
The evening was filled with lots of laughter and a lovely walk through
the Czech Republic's Country side! I thought I would never see
it again, and i was unsure if it even existed... but
I had the privileged of seeing Czech's rolling hills and farmlands!
It is not too different Indiana... the main difference is
the mountains in the background and the not so flat
land! It was comforting and felt like home being
out in the country for once!
(i had a dream about baseball the other night... i think
i might be slightly homesick.....)

Today was so relaxing! I had another wonderful meal made
for me...... see picture. and spent the day
with my Czech friend in a newby park! The parks here are incredible. Although i am in a big city
the Prague landscape is gorgeous and there are parks
everywhere! This park was hugee! Today there was a festival
of some sort going on (there is always some sort of event going
in this city!) I got some reading done for school....... but
soon fell fast asleep under the shade. It was quiet the
peaceful day! I wouldn't mind having days
like these everyday :]

So although we do not have school on mondays, the weekend
for me is over.. i have to hit the books hard tomorrow!
This week will most def. be an intense week
as far as studying goes :[
So wish me luck I am off to bed. Miss you family and
friends! Eat some peanut butter and take a country
back road for me, just a few things i miss about home :]
AHOJ!

Saint John under the Cliff and Karlstejn Castle

OK ( SO I GUESS IT SAVED!)

Here we go read the last blog but disregard
the part where it didnt save yay for blogspot
autosaving my post!

Today's Wednesday trip was quiet the adventure. After a short bus
ride out of the city we arrived at the sacred site of
Saint John under the Cliff. Here we learned the legend
of Saint Ivan. For those of you who don't know Saint Ivan's story
he was son of the Charvatian duke Gostimysl. Obviously being a duke's son
he had the option to live quiet the luxurious life, but instead
Ivan chose to retreat to the silent landscape where he lived 42 years
under the cave. After being tempted by demons Ivan decided to leave the site,
however on the day of his departure, St. John the Baptist appeared on the hill
under St. John Cliff and he gave Ivan a wooden cross, which helped Ivan
expel the demons.

The site of the cave now has a church beside it where you actually have to enter
the church to enter the cave. Unfortunately the church was filled with
dust and construction so we were unable to get a good view of
what the church once looked like, but we were able to enter the sacred
cave, where their were holy statues and crosses.

The cave and church were pretty neetoo but my favorite part
of our little adventure to St. John's was our hike up to the wooden cross.
Let me tell you either im out of shape or this hike was strenuous beyond belief.
Lets just say i was hurting! The hike was about 25mins up and 25mins down,
coming down was obviously way easier than going up. Every step was worth it
though. The view from the top of the hill/mountain was breath taking.
It nearly brought tears to my eyes it was so beautiful. After taking it all in, and
snapping a few dangerously close the edge photos we headed back down and
we were off to our next site of the day.

Karlstejn Castle was the next adventure of the day. This also included some hiking
since the castle was located up on a hill. The Gothic style castle dates back to 1348,
when it was founded by King Charles IV. The castle served as a
place for safekeeping the Imperial Regalia, Bohemian coronation jewels, holy relics
and other royal treasures. The castle was incredible and well worth the hike
up the hill! After many renovations and restorations the castle open to the
public again in 2000, the castle is now one of the most famous
and most frequently visited castles in the Czech Republic.
I suggest visitors of Prague to take a trip up to the castle!!

Saint John under the Cliff and Karlstejn Castle

I just need to rant for a minute.
I just type up a good oh 6 paragraphs of a blog, which
just to let you know this is for a school as well, and the cleaning lady
came in to do her daily cleaning. Well when she vacuumed she
blew a fuse and the power went out. My computer only stays on
when its plugged in, therefore i lost everything i had just spent the
whole morning typing up. I want to cry.

I find myself in these situations a lot here to be honest. Like
when i simply want my refund from the vending machine because
it stole $4 dollars from me and never gave me my drink. But they
dont believe in refunds here in Czech. Nor do they believe in
smiling or being polite to their customers. Waiters and waitresses
dont work for the tip here so they dont care of your soup is cold
or if you didnt order what was given to you.

I am not sure if its all of Czech of just this dorm facility, but
the laundry situation is boat loads of frustration as well,
we have no dryers! My clothes are scattered all throughout
my room still hanging damp after two days of hanging up to dry.
Ok so maybe i am a little home sick. Actually i am not sure if
home sick is the right word. I am just missing the everyday
conveniences of living in the states. We are spoiled
back home TRUST ME!

bahh what id do for a cold fountain soda with ICE right now!

P.S Yesterday i went to Saint John under the Cliff and The
Karlsejn Castle, i lost my camera on my train ride home
from Oktoberfest (which was a blast)
so i couldnt snap any photos :[ That is what i had
written about but i am not typing it up again. The places were
gorgeous and involved a lot of hiking and history,
I wont lie the hiking was more interesting!
We were able to get out of the city and see
the Czech country side! (YES THEY HAVE CORN
FIELDS HERE TOO!) It was actually quiet comforting to
see the cornfields :] More later, wish me luck!

Prague Castle!

Wednesday Trips!! I have been slacking on my blogging.
From this point forward I will try to do better.

So last Wednesday was our trip to the PRAGUE CASTLE!
I was so happy to finally get to see and learn the history of this
beautiful castle I see everyday and night! ( Our dorm has a great view
of the Prague castle and at night is it is so beautifully lit up!)

The Castles history dates all the way back from the 9th century (870)
when it was the Church of Our Lady. Throughout the castle's
history it has housed the offices of countless important leaders.
Those including, Kings of Bohemia, Holy
Roman emperors and presidents of Czechoslovakia and
the Czech Republic. During WWII the castle was utilized
as the headquarters of Reinhard Heydrich.
According to some, Heydrich made the unfortunate decision to
place the Bohemian Crown on his head.
I say unfortunate because according to legend anyone who
is classified as
a 'usuper'(someone with illegitimate power) will die
within a year of placing the crown
on their head. Because Heydrich was a Nazi soldier who declared
martial law on Prague during WWII he most definitely was
considered a 'usuper' and was assassinatedwithin a year later.

According to the Guinness Book of World Records the castle is that
largest in the world!! For those of you who know art, the castle
is mostly Gothic style. However the castle's buildings
virtually represents ever architecture style of the last millennium.
It was thanks to King Charles IV that the castle
took on its Gothic style in 14th century. (King Charles IV is responsible
for a good portion of this cities architecture,
including the infamous Charles bridge!)

I unfortunately did not get any pictures of the
inside because my camera died.But the inside of the castle is unreal.
The stain glass windows are gorgeous and
the ceilings are unbelievably high. I can only
imagine how long it took to
create the place!

Alright so here it is a weeks worth of events that i have failed
to blog because i have been so unbelievably busy!

I suppose we will start with Wednesday when our lovely tour guide
Vladka (short for Vladamir) took us to Prague's most famous gardens!
The gardens were breath taking! I can only imagine the hours put
into the landscapes' upkeep! My favorite garden was most definitely
the Vrtbovaka garden!The Vrtbovska garden has an Italian style terrace and was
built by the Vrtbovsky palace in 1715 - 1720 for Jan Joseph. The
garden or should I say gardens were set up in manner in which there was
multiple levels each giving visitors a better view of the last. Above is a picture of one of the
statues designed by sculptor Matyas Bernard Braun and below that is the fresco
painted by Vaclave Vavrinec Reiner.
The highest level gave us not only a great view of all the gardens
but a breath taking view of the city! This is a situation where pictures as
great they may be, JUST DONT DO IT JUSTICE!

The gardens were our first field trip and it
was def one to remember! it was supposed to be a rainy day and it
turned out to be an absolutely beautiful day!

Thursday we had class. We are learning about Czech history, interesting,
but very different from any history class I have sat in before. It is quiet
difficult at times trying to remember all of these Czech cities and names,
let me tell you all i may be in Prague but this is not going to be a breeze of a semester.

Thursday night was our Friday, classes are only held on TUES and THURS! So
we went out of course. We headed down to Wenceslas Square for the evening.
The Square, although i have never been there, reminds me of NYC.
It is still older buildings that Prague is famous for, but it is much more
commercial, vs. the Old Town Square.

It was ok, may go back may not. There is so much to explore here we dont want
to limit ourselves to the same weekend night after night. Sunday was a day
i'll always remember. Just like i had vividly remembered that day ten years prior.
We went to an event at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. They had security check us
and I assumed there would be a speech said and a moment of silence had for
the lives lost in the September 11th tragedies. But there was a band. A rock band. And free beer
I didnt understand. I was confused why people were dancing and singing. There was a small
exhibit with 9/11 articles and pictures. It was kinda neat to see all articles in
the different languages all throughout the world.
Its nice to know that other countries around the world had us in their
prayers and were mourning with us in the hard times.

But this event really, just baffled me until the very last commment that was made
by what i believe was our (U.S) ambassador.

"Art is a way of healing and this is art"

SO i guess that explains the concert and the festivities.

Ok. So I am incredibly behind on writing this blog, I am now two and half
weeks into this adventure and i have blogged what three times?
More later.