school's getting in the way of being abroad

whoa. it's may.

lots and lots to write about. i'm actually at school between classes and it is starting to hit me that my time in prague is running out. AHH!!!

so moje maminka (my mom, for those non-czech speakers who follow my blog) was in prague from wednesday night to monday morning. it was awesome to have her here because i won't be going home this summer, plus i got to eat a lot of food and show my mom around the city! we did a couple things i hadn't done before, like taking a boat tour (highly recommended), going to the kafka museum (side note: the museum is a must-see, mostly because it plays a lot of eerie music and creeped me out), and eating so much that my stomach hurt (lemon leaf). we went to cesky krumlov on saturday and we were there all day - since it's a really small town of 14,000 people, some of my friends asked what we were going to do from 10am to 7pm.. but we went up to the top of the tower, saw the inside of the castle, and spent a lot of time sitting and eating, which happen to be some of my fave activities. it was epic! plus it didn't rain. cesky krumlov was just as wonderful and beautiful as i remembered it, so a very fruitful trip. julie and dani were also in prague this weekend and though i failed at finding the cave bar (u sudu), i managed to hang out with them at night and i will be seeing them shortly in paris!!

we have a week and a half of classes left and i wish that cerge would just cancel class altogether. i mean my czech exam is next thursday and i know that's important but truth be told, i feel like i haven't gained that much academically this semester compared to my time at wes so why make us sit through 3 hour lectures when we could be doing other stuff? like drinking a liter of pivo for less than five bucks right around the corner? or going to kutna hora? or walking around the many many parks that i have yet to see? school really is getting in the way of being abroad, and i am not a fan of this fact. i also have a lot of random loose ends to tie up like buying a suitcase, changing my plane tickets, buying a ticket for paris, paying rent, sending some more postcards, etc.

in other news, plans for paris are sort of coming together! i've been looking through notes from last semester and the articles i used for the basis of my grant proposal and i'm getting excited!! money for research!! i still can't believe that. well. three weeks is not going to be enough time to do everything that i want to do in terms of proper research but it should be a good start. plus i get to go to the south of france (aix-en-provence) to visit the colonial archives. i will most likely take a side trip for a day or two to nice and possible to marseilles as well, meaning i am going to see a BEACH and something other than the eiffel tower. plus i may have dani and julie as traveling buddies!

i am heading to london this weekend to see greg, which will be great :) we are embarking on our first couchsurfing experience, which should be quite interesting... plus, the britisn election is on thursday which is our first day there. our host is actually throwing a small election party which we will be attending. seriously. cool. i think the next two weeks are going to be filled with a lot of different activities - when i'm home, i'll be working on my papers (two done, two to go). but i still haven't been to u sudu for foosball, haven't gone to the top of the baby tower, haven't been to plzen......... but first, class. time to go talk about multiculturalism = good, assimilation = bad.