the best monday EVER.

most people are not a fan of mondays, myself included, but today was an exceptionally wonderful monday. i would venture to say this has been the best monday ever, and details are below! before i start, some recaps.

the picture of the horses and the man in the costume are from last tuesday - we think it was for carnevale (a celebration 40 days before easter). there was music, costumes, delicious food, balloons, and lots of excitement. it was a great way to end my first day of classes and it was going on practically in our backyard (and by that, i mean at jiriho z podebrad, outside our metro station).

 

  

 

on saturday, we went to the stare mesto fair, which was also filled with music and food. going to old town is always a treat, and it was a very authentic, czech experience (though there were tons of tourists around). the weather was also much warmer this weekend, which was a MAJOR plus.

 

 

on sunday, i went to ikea with karin, which was AWESOME. we took the metro to the end of the b line (cerny most, which means "black bridge" in czech but there was no black bridge in sight...) and then there was a special ikea bus that took us to the store! i'm not sure if the ikea store is still a part of prague but it definitely looked different from the rest of the city in that there weren't any pedestrians and there were lots of highways around. to be honest it looked more like something from grand rapids than in prague. well this was the first time i had ever been to ikea and i was not disappointed. there were a lot of people there so i think all the excitement is at ikea on the weekends. you can see why:

we also got delicious ice cream (zmrzlina) after our shopping for 10 czk (less than a dollar). score! 

as i've said about 16 times, i don't have class on mondays but i wanted to be productive today so i woke up at 10, and went for a morning walk in the park. it was sunny (!!!) and i can see some of the snow starting to melt. sadly, there are still icy patches everywhere, meaning i almost slipped and fell about 8 times during my walk. after that, i made myself some lunch (rice and an omlette) and headed to the mucha museum, which is right next to cerge. i hadn't heard a lot about mucha until i went to the museum but it was neat to see his work, especially the posters he designed. there was a video about his life (in english) which was quite informative, and the only thing that i wish i saw in the museum was the slav epic that was mentioned. apparently (according to wikipedia), those paintings are in a different part of the czech republic. also, the museum did not allow photography but i saw some other guy taking pictures so i did too... haha. 

 

after the mucha museum, i took the metro from mustek to flora and walked to a meeting i had. i got lost (per usual) but found my way to the right street. i was about 15 minutes early and i noticed that there was a "prague christian library" right across the street from where i was supposed to be. i took a picture of the sign, but the lady inside must have seen me because she came outside and invited me in. there were tons of christian books, all in english, and she gave me a pamphlet about joining. it made the "religion major" in me very, very happy.

i made it to baranova 33 a little before 3pm for my meeting with mr. druker at transitions online. professor rutland (my government advisor at wesleyan) told me about the organization (a nonprofit that does research/publishes articles about post-communist europe) and gave me mr. druker's contact information. since it doesn't look like my classes will be taking over my life like they usually do at wes, i thought working at TOL this semester would not only be a great experience, but expose me to another aspect of life in prague. i finally met mr. druker today and it seems like there is a LOT for me to do - i'm mostly going to help with writing grant proposals but i'll also be dabbling in editing articles, summarizing pieces for the newsletter, researching new media and fundraising techniques, etc etc. i'll be interning on mondays from 9am-6pm and i am PUMPED. after i talked to mr. druker, i had my first day of work and i re-formatted an addendum that is being sent to the czech ministry about some of TOL's seminars. neato!

my day got even better after this because i met up with denisa, my czech language partner, at wenceslas square. we went to this amazing dessert place nearby called "cukrana mysak" and talked for awhile about school, summer plans, life in prague, and so on, while having dessert. spending time with denisa has been great because it gives me a lot more insight into life in prague from a czech perspective. one of my only complaints about my study abroad experience so far is that i spend most of my time with other americans, which is not necessarily a bad thing.. but it's nice to get a different point of view. plus, denisa is way awesome. win!

so life is good. not perfect, though, because i am still stressed about finding an internship this summer. there are also days when i actually hate everything because the simplest tasks can be so difficult here. for instance, we didn't know how to use our oven and thought it was broken - turns out you have to turn three dials instead of the two we were using. also, i completely failed at doing laundry this weekend because there are about 180 settings. though i love prague, i would say i miss the familiarity of simple tasks. i still remember my first experience at the grocery store - where it took me over 10 minutes to buy cheese because i couldn't tell the difference between the different types offered. aside from missing friends and family, i also really miss being on a meal plan, which i never thought i would say. i'm learning to cook (sort of), but there are days when i wish i could go to weswings and get a chicken grinder and some strawberry mousse instead of spending 20 minutes cooking pasta.

this weekend we are going to cesky krumlov, which is a unesco world heritage sight and looks beautiful. i'll have my first full day at TOL next monday, which is also the first day of march! i'll be in amsterdam with julie from march 4-7, and then greg will be here in prague from march 7-12!! i can't wait to have a piece of wes while i'm abroad, and i'm already planning out our days (which will be filled with museums and THAI FOOD). after that, sarah and max will be visiting from march 12-18 so the next few weeks will be wonderful. for now, it's time for dinner and czech homework.

classes, field trips, and horses!

i think i can actually call myself a second-semester junior, now that i'm in class full-time. classes at CERGE aren't even comparable to wes, but i think this semester will still be a pretty good one because i'm happy with my finalized schedule.

-elementary czech (tues/thurs 8:20-9:50): learning czech has definitely, definitely made my experience in prague about 8120390x better. there are seven kids in my czech class so it's nice and small. we had our food/restaurant section this week (jidlo/restaurace) and i learned another phrase to add to my growing "fave phrase" bank: dobrou chut, which means bon appetit and is pronounced "do-broo hoot." on thursday we went to albert, the local grocery store, during class and our task was to find out how much different items cost. the week before that, we went to the post office to use our new vocab to buy a stamp and envelope. the only bad thing about czech is that it's so early in the morning...

-multiculturalism, ethnicity, and collective memory in central europe (tues/thurs 1:30-3): this is probably my favorite class so far. what we're learning about is basically in the course title but the class has a great set-up because we talk about theories/background info on the first day of the unit and then discuss the case studies on thursday. our class has four people and our professor is super-cool because she's from barcelona but she also speaks czech (and the class is taught in english) so that's multicultural/multilingual for you right there. we're going over a lot of cool cases like the turks in german, the split of czechoslovakia, and the yugoslavia case all in the context of ethnicity and national identity, which i think is SUPER interesting and a new spin on things i learned from rutland's nationalism class :)

-european integration (wed 10-1): after going to the first class, i realized just how little i knew about the EU or europe in general.. but after this week i am happy to report that i can probably name at least 40 of the 47 countries in europe on the sporcle test! i think this class is going to be really interesting, though a bit dry at times since we're going over a lot of facts about the EU in terms of institutions and rules. but i have already learned that:
-there are 27 countries in the EU
-denmark and sweden are not on the euro
-there are three "seats" where the EU is located (brussels, luxembourg, strasbourg)

-prague as a living history (wed 2-5:30): so this is my WALKING TOUR class. my teacher is a guy named pavel who is a ph.d student at charles but also is an excellent tour guide. for our first class, we walked across the charles bridge and talked about all the different statues around the city. then we got to go to st. nicholas church in mala strana and went to the top of the tower for a great view of prague! i can't wait until it gets warmer because walking for 2+ hours in the cold can be kind of rough on the feet/face... but it was worth it.

 

our fearless leader, pavel, in front of the charles iv statue

one of the statues along the charles bridge

 

the view from the top of st. nicholas!

-in love with power: non-democratic regimes since 1945 (thurs 10-1): this is the class i decided to take instead of "life in a totalitarian regime" (which was painfully boring), and it was... well it was interesting. the professor is quite young (and as i later found out from astute internetting skills, a ph.d. student at charles) and he is attractive.. but i can't be sure if he's attractive or sort of a potential creeper. he just gives off this type of vibe that i have yet to decode. well time will tell since i have three hours every week to ascertain this. the class is  small (five students) and the professor can kind of be intimidating. i don't know, he asks us a lot of questions and we don't always know the answer. but i think i'm going to learn a LOT. during the first class, we talked about the differences between a totalitarian and authoritarian regime, and the prof said he could cater the readings/the class to the things we're most interested in, which is cool. another cool thing is that my czech language partner is also in the class! her name is denisa and she is GREAT so that's going to be fun.

so there are my classes for the next three months. the workload is very, very light and it makes me a little nervous about re-integrating myself to wesleyan academics in the fall but we'll see. since i don't have class until tuesday (!!!) i'll explain the previous picture in another post, along with how our trip to ikea goes today. i broke two bowls the other night (no, i didn't throw them against the wall out of rage but i dropped them, typical) so i'm going to replace those, and get some tupperware for my lunches. life of excitement, i know. the picture below is just another reason why i love this city. these horses were a couple meters outside the metro station on my way home, the same day the dude in the costume was there. 

  

!!!!!!!!! (does this picture need words?)

being sick is for chumps

you would think that the month-long winter break i had would prepare my immune system for anything and everything, but alas i was wrong. i think i'm sick. i can't breathe when i wake up in the morning and i've also been coughing up a storm over the past two days, which is really sad because i feel like i have not done a lot to warrant such a cold. i haven't been going out until 6am and the most strenuous part of my day is usually getting out of bed. i'm done with my first week of classes so i'll be using the next four days to recuperate, drink lots of tea, write postcards, and FINALLY catch up on lost! lots of updates, per usual, coming soon to a blog near you, including:

-CLASSES and one particular professor who may either be very attractive or potentially a creeper...
-the latest update from my fave potraviny
-new czech phrases slowly being integrated into my everyday life
-and the explanation behind this picture:

stay tuned!

kde je...? mluvite anglicky? also, INTERNET!

*translation: where is...? do you speak english?

fear not, i am still alive and making my way around prague. we have been internet-less for OVER A WEEK but thank god we finally have working internet in our flat (!!!!!!) - clearly, lots of updates are in order. i feel like a more appropriate title for my blog might be "stranger in a strange land" because there are so many unfamiliar things around, not to mention the fact that i stick out like a sore thumb. this is definitely a change from life in seoul or even at wesleyan, but it is pretty rare to see asians around prague, unless they are tourists in old town. hopefully i can surprise czechs in the coming months by being able to communicate in czech and not being hopelessly lost. i think i only got lost a few times this week, which is a BIG step up from last weekend where i was literally lost for an hour after returning from the grocery store. it turns out that i was like five minutes away from home but just walked in circles.

before i start with updates, i have to write about our experience at the potraviny. there are small grocery stores called "potraviny" scattered all over prague and you can pick up basic things like fruit, vegetables, nutella, alcohol, etc. well the first potraviny i went into was run by vietnamese people and i think they must have been very, very, very excited to see a fellow asian because as soon as pranadhi and i stepped into the store, people were staring at me and asked about six times where i was from (or more like "tokyo??" "china??") and kept speaking chinese to me. as we were leaving, one of the viets in the store followed us to the exit and said "cau! cau! cau!!!!" (pronounced "chao") over and over... and then one of the other viets stared out the window as we walked outside, waving for about three minutes. against my better judgment, we returned to the same potraviny the next day, where one of the workers kept pretending to throw oranges at pranadhi, and i had to explain again that i was korean. from seoul, not tokyo. pranadhi and i could not stop laughing when we were in the store and as we were paying for our HUGE jar of tesco nutella, one of the guys slipped bananas into our bag. clever. well, i think we found our grocery store for the next few months and i will keep you updated on our new viet friends down the street...

 

our potraviny!

(1) where i live.
most of you know that my biggest concern about coming to prague wasn't the weather, the language barrier, or classes - but it was finding a place to live. well i am happy to report that after a week, i love our flat and my roomie. i am living with a girl named pranadhi from umich in vinohrady, a residential area on the border of prague 2 and 3. it's a 3 minute walk from our flat to the metro station (jiriho z podebrad), and then three stops on the metro to mustek. it's not far away, but the walking/waiting for the metro/walking takes about 20 minutes. i am really happy with our living situation - nice kitchen, nice neighborhood, and a great view of the beautiful buildings across the street. we also live across the street from a park, which is going to be even more awesome once it's warmer outside!

 

pictures of my new home & neighborhood for the next three months!

(2) what i do.
it's actually been two months since i've been in classes full-time but the second week of orientation reminded me that yes, jsem studentka (i am a student). last week we started intensive czech classes, which has been wonderful for several reasons. i've learned a ton of useful stuff (like how to send postcards, how to ask for directions, etc) and five short days of czech classes have already made me feel less like a tourist and more like i belong here and can survive here for the next three months. starting this week, i have czech class twice a week at 8:20am. cross-reference that time with the last paragraph where i said it takes 20 minutes to get to school.... booooo. i really like learning czech and it just might be my favorite class. also, my teacher (profesorka) brought her baby to class last week because he was sick. adorbs!

(3) what i've seen.
after almost two weeks, i've seen a lot of the "touristy" parts of prague. my favorite part of prague is probably old town - it just looks so old and majestic. we've also been to the charles bridge, prague castle/st. vitus cathedral and the jewish quarter, some other key sites. pranadhi and i went to vysehrad on saturday, which is where the royal family first lived before they moved to prague castle in the 1100s. i've also seen a lot of buildings from the outside, like the national theater narodni divadlo), the municipal house, and the national museum. a bunch of museums are free during the first week of the month so i've already got my free museum-hopping week planned out for march. and just so there isn't any doubt about me actually being IN prague...

 

st. nicholas church in old town and the jewish quarter

charles bridge, prague castle, inside st. vitus cathedral, and st. george's basilica

perhaps one of the more interesting places i've been to is a bar called "the big lebowski" in our neighborhood. we decided to venture out on saturday night and do something low-key, and pranadhi and i naturally assumed a place called "the big lebowski" would be american, complete with american music and american people at the bar. well. we were completely wrong. once we stepped inside, it was basically the bar and then narrow stairs leading upstairs. once we got to the top, i noticed the low ceiling and an abundance of TOYS. that's right, there were like 10 stuffed animals and floor pillows scattered everywhere, and people smoking hookah in the room next to ours. talk about unexpected.. well we got pilsners and played some chess until the bar closed at midnight. not exactly the silver mill or any bar i've ever been to (or even seen in movies), but it was.. interesting. 

 

inside "the big lebowski"

other fun updates:
-the word for "break" in czech is POWZA. not sure if that's the correct spelling, but does that really matter? 10-minute powza (!!!) - that will definitely be coming back with me to wesleyan to incorporate into my lingo.

-the metro stops running at midnight and starts again at 5am. we definitely learned this the hard way last week.

-there are TONS of dogs here. i never pictured prague as a dog-friendly city but people walk their dogs at all hours of the day and also bring them inside the metro, the tram, etc etc.

-i will be going to amsterdam from march 4-7 with julie, and then picking greg up at the airport on the 7th because he will be in prague from march 7-12! then sarah and max will be here from march 12-18, and then i'll be going to krakow on a cerge group trip from march 18-21. for spring break, i'll be heading to rome over easter weekend, spending a day in florence and bologna each, then going to paris for a few days!

-i'm learning how to cook.. buying groceries is way cheaper than eating out so i am experimenting with pasta, vegetables, and when all else fails, eating a LOT of bread, nutella, and jam. there's a really nice bakery next to the metro station where a parisian baguette is 28 korun (about a $1.50).

-the cheese in prague is INCREDIBLE. everything from feta to the cheapo spreadable cheese you can pick up at albert.

-unrelated to study abroad but still important.. so i have absolutely no idea what i am going to be doing this summer since internship searching has not been too successful. but good news is that i have a great job to return to at wes as head resident! i get to work for the best boss ever (!!!) and do administrative stuff AND go to three different staff meetings which is like a dream come true, haha.

coming soon: our first church service in czech at st. nicholas church in old town, what classes are like, scandalous stories about my roommate (haha kidding), my fantasticky czech language partner, food i'm cooking, and other great czech phrases i'm learning :)

FANTASTICKY!

we started czech classes yesterday and today we learned a couple synonyms for dobre (which means good), one of them being FANTASTICKY. safe to say that fantasticky (pronounced fanta-stitchy) is my new fave czech word. i had forgotten how much fun it is to learn a new language and play games (using numbers and fly swatters). all of our classes start next monday.. i don't think they'll be anywhere close to wes classes but hey, at least we're in prague. plus i have a five-day weekend!


we are internet-less in our brand spanking new flat, so i am currently blogging in the school computer lab. a real update is in order, but alas, you'll have to wait a few days to see pictures of the flat and see pictures of me in prague to believe that i'm actually here, since there seem to be some doubts... i haven't tried this yet but see if you can google my flat on google earth - i live in na svihance 2, praha 2!


sneak preview: my first outing alone to the supermarket, getting lost, reading maps, cooking meals, learning chess, planning my first trip to amsterdam (?!), and much much more! i also wrote a couple postcards and will be writing many, many more so keep your eyes peeled!

getting lost and speaking french in staré město

continuing adventures in praha...

a couple important updates (and more win/fail moments).

(+) we move into our flat tomorrow afternoon!! that only gets one + because it means we have to pay rent and a deposit = BROKE. still, a moral victory. win!

(+++) we went to the bank to exchange traveler's checks to czech koruna (the currency) to pay the aforementioned rent tomorrow, which literally took an hour.. and as we tried to navigate our way back to school, pranadhi and i got lost. i was tired, feeling sick, starving, and generally displeased... we decided to ask for directions and the two women we started walking with were speaking french and pointing us towards the tram. one woman was telling the other (in french) how to get to tram 9, and the second woman tried explaining it to us in english but since i could understand, i thought i would save some time and just ask if going straight past the building to the next street was okay - they both looked surprised so i said "je parle un peu de francais" and they both smiled and spoke french. 

IT. WAS. AMAZING. not only did i get to speak french in the middle of prague, us being "lost" meant we ended up in the heart of staré město (old town), where i got to see the astronomical tower and st. nicholas cathedral. this is what being lost in prague looks like:

before we realized we were actually lost...

the heart of staré město - tons and tons of tourists.

the astronomical tower that i recognized from postcards! you can climb to the top of the tower, which is definitely on the agenda in the next couple days.

clearly, a potential fail turned into a MAJOR EPIC WIN!! that definitely made up for the bad morning i had. afterwards, i got a vegetarian quesadilla at a panini place near school and we went to the realtor's office to sign the lease - one step closer!

there is SO much to do/see here and the list of places to explore is growing longer and longer. pavlina, one of the staff members, showed us a great tea place behind school, and anna pointed out a coffee shop built in cubist architecture in old town, for starters. i think i also want to go to some of the church services here - not because i'll understand it, but because i want that authentic experience. apparently, czechs are mostly atheists, which is a shame because there are so many cathedrals and churches everywhere. another thing to note - more of a :( than a fail.. i won't be taking any religion classes here because the independent study fell through and none of the classes here have a significant portion dedicated to a religion theme/issue, so all the more reason to explore cathedrals on my own. if i'm feeling better by sunday, i'm thinking about going to mass. we'll see! also, this means i am going to take whatever class i want as my 5th class. details forthcoming.

oh, i also took a picture inside a bank because it was gorgeous and i got reprimanded by the security guard who was REALLY SCARY. lame.

for now, i am going to find some cough drops and lie in bed because i am exhausted, per usual. until next time!

flying across asia (and other stories)

FINALLY HERE. IN PRAGUE. 

so i have 81238120380128930129380 updates, thoughts, judgments, random commentary, etc. but i am here. in one piece. just a few updates before i crash (and a picture to prove that yes, i really am here).

 

the tram - basically a subway system above ground. we got an unlimited transportation pass for three months which means plenty of trams/metro rides in the future!

 

the inside of the CERGE building. yes. this is where i'll be taking classes. compare this with exley. there's also a spiral staircase (picture forthcoming).

sadly, i have not been taking enough pictures. i'm still trying to adjust to so many aspects of life here - everything from new currency (1 dollar = about 18.5 czk) to new words to new people. 

julie had a blog entry from last semester where she made a list of win/fail moments as a way to recap. i will now do the same, but thought i should give her a little shout-out since i didn't come up with the idea on my own.

(+) WE FOUND A PLACE TO LIVE, THANK GOD. i'm living with one other girl named pranadhi from umich and we're living in a beautiful flat in prague 2, which is a more residential area (compared to prague 1, where school is and a lot of the touristy sights). all i have to say is thank god wesleyan arranges housing for all four years because this process of talking to realtors and going to places has been exhausting. but we reserved a flat and we'll hopefully be moving in on saturday, which is ONE. MAJOR. WIN.

( ) even though food is cheaper here (you can get a decent meal for under 10 dollars), i've been eating out for every meal because we're staying at a hotel in prague 3 until we secure housing/cook in our flats. i have no source of income until august, which means i need to be a lot more careful about budgeting. i don't know if this is a fail, but it's not a win. we'll call this one a TIE.

(-) people are cliquey here. maybe they weren't the first day or two, but by the time i got there, it was sort of ridiculous and not as open-minded as i thought it would be. also, orientation was more about paperwork and the nitty-gritty than icebreakers and the name game, so i still don't know everyone's names. i think i may know like half the people here? that's sort of a FAIL.

(+) we got our schedules today and for the first time ever, i don't have class on fridays... OR MONDAYS. which means long weekends and perhaps cheaper traveling deals since i can leave on thursday afternoon and come back on monday. WIN!

(-) unfortunately, this means i have really long tuesdays and wednesdays when i have class for 7 or 8 hours in a row. classes here are once a week for three hours. that's intense. i also haven't been in "class" since december, so this is going to be an adjustment. elementary czech also meets twice a week at 8:20am, FAIL.

(+) the UPCES staff here is amazing. like so incredibly helpful and just wonderful. they've been helping us look for flats, going with us to different places (we went to three different flats today all over the city, which took all afternoon), and trying to ease us into a completely new life here. i was worried about interaction with czechs since my visa situation was such a nightmare but the program staff (composed of one american, two czechs, and one slovak) pwns. WIN.

(-) i'm pretty exhausted. like all the time. all that inactivity at home from watching tv and bumming around, mixed in with the stress from the first few days and still being jetlagged, has not always made me a happy camper. it's getting better, but walking around on icy roads isn't that fun. plus since i am a KLUTZ i am extra cautious and walk really really slowly. it's still cold here. fail (notice that this is a lowercase fail).

(+) the transportation system here rocks. like i said, we got unlimited transportation passes and nicki, the program director, gave us a fantastic idea today. she said we should take a tram - any tram - at night and ride to the final stop just to take a tour of prague and see different parts of the city. if we see a coffee shop or a cool store, we can get out, explore, then hop back on the tram. i cannot wait to try this (hopefully this weekend or maybe sometime next week). MAJOR WIN!

as the record stands, win > fail. i'll try to keep it that way. expect another blog post soon!