pictures!

lots of overdue photos from cesky krumlov, LONDON, and general prague antics. coming soon: the conclusion of prague as a living history :( and hanging out with PAVEL!!

above: cesky krumlov! below: london!

general prague ridiculousness below:

anyhow. in other news.

i have less than a week left in prague. not. okay. i am trying to get my ducks in a row before leaving, and i am still in the process of figuring out travels. i'm leaving for paris next wednesday and i just bought my ticket for the states - flying from paris to JFK (via iceland...??) on june 9. i think i may spend a day or two in nyc before taking the train to dc. still no sublet in dc, working on it. today is my last day of class as a JUNIOR, which is weird.. but not really, because i'm ready for classes to be over. i think a future blog post will be grades for my classes (if i have to get grades, then it only makes sense for me to grade the classes too). some excerpts from teaching evaluation for one of my classes, which i'm currently sitting through right now..

"the only way he could keep my attention is when his shirt was unbuttoned."

"i wish he wouldn't WRITE ALL HIS POWERPOINTS IN CAPITAL LETTERS. that's unnecessary."

"my favorite thing about the class was the documentaries."
"he was very masochistic and it was clear that he was in love with himself."

oh study abroad. details soon.

destination: london!

i'm back from a three-days of pure awesome that was london. i was pretty skeptical about going for many reasons, two reasons which did turn out to be legit:

1) i didn't want to sleep in the frankfurt-hahn airport on wednesday night.
2) the british pound is expensive.
3) we were couchsurfing for the first time. 

i left my humble abode on wednesday night and flew from prague to frankfurt. upon arriving in frankfurt at 11pm, i had 7 hours until my flight to london (6am). there were a lot of people sleeping at the airport since people who fly ryanair (read; cheap european airline that tries to sell you raffle tickets and charges you 5euro for water) have to give up some luxuries like decent flight hours... i slept maybe an hour or so but then just played "snake xenzia" on my cell phone until my flight.

i met up with greg around 9am on thursday and we really hit the ground running. with my expert map-reading skills, we saw westminster abbey, big ben, houses of parliament, and walked to trafalgar square. we ate lunch (THAI FOOD!!) then went into the national gallery. even though london is ridiculously expensive, especially compared to prague, a lot of the cultural activities like museums are free. we went on a free guided tour and heard about four painting in-depth.. after all this, we finally headed to our couchsurfing host bron's place.

this was my first time couchsurfing and i was a little skeptical, mostly because the concept of sleeping at a stranger's house seems a little sketch. it was actually a good experience though - a really good one. bron had an election party since thursday was the british election and it involved lots of wine, risotto, and listening to british commentators make fun of all the candidates. unfortunately i can't tell you too much more about this party because i fell asleep..... BUT it was still neat. bron went away on a sailing trip over the weekend and she let us (me and greg) stay at her flat while she was gone. again, that's crazy to me - letting strangers live in your house when you aren't even there - but maybe it's just a different way of thinking. well, i will also be couchsurfing for three days when i go to aix-en-provence at the end of may, so we'll see!

greg and i did a lot of other touristy stuff on friday and saturday (towers of london, walking along the river, taking pictures in the red telephone booths, tate modern, buckingham palace, british museum, and so on) and i also got to see two familiar faces - we hung out with shana, one of my friends from high school in korea (she goes to university college london), and then we saw sue-jung (a friend from wes who is abroad at UCL for the semester... and shana and sue also know each other now, small world!) on saturday for lunch. it's always good to see friends while you're abroad, so that was wonderful :) pictures forthcoming (i'm currently at the TOL office with nothing to do).

three things i will say about london. first, one of the reasons why i loved london so much is because the city is incredibly multicultural. being in prague has almost been like a living in a bubble for me, where i am clearly outside this bubble because i stick out like a sore thumb (i am often mistaken for an asian tourist). in london, i fit right in - everyone does. i loved being in an atmosphere with lots and lots of different people (the british accents don't hurt, either). we must have looked pretty legit because someone asked me for directions when we were about to get on the tube. speaking of the tube. second, i love the british lingo. like that's rubbish. and names for stuff like piccadilly circus!!! that's just cool. third, scones are delicious.

i think rome may have been my favorite city but london is the only place where i could see myself living - whether for studying abroad or in the future. i have been thinking about the future (which usually leaves me feeling sad and/or depressed) and i think i am seriously going to consider/look at working abroad after graduating. we'll see.

i have so much more to say about london and how great it was... but i am getting pretty sad thinking about the next few days. not only is the weather supposed to be gross and wet like it has been for the last week - this is my last full week in prague. i bought my ticket for paris before i left and i am leaving on may 19, 6am. the past three months have gone by SO quickly.

we'll end on a positive note: my thesis got approved, so looks like i will be writing one with professor gottschalk as my advisor - in his words, hurrah! also, i will be in DC in less than one month!

LOST

i'm heading to london for the weekend after watching what was quite possibly one of the BEST LOST EPISODES, EVER. i'll have plenty of long layovers (i arrive in frankfurt at 11pm tonight and leave for london at 6:30am tomorrow - when i return, i'll have 10+ hours in frankfurt) to think about the implications of this episode.

only three days of class left for the semester.

also, i am officially going to paris on may 19. woo!

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.

litoměřice!

our trip to litoměřice was arguably the best cerge trip i've taken all semester, for several reasons.

1) it was the warmest - seriously, spring in prague ROCKS. i'll probably reiterate this in every blog post.
2) it was the shortest - we were back in prague by 9pm.
3) it had the fewest people. 

... among many other reasons, as you'll see.

we left school around 10am on friday morning and drove about an hour away from prague to a small town called litoměřice (pronounced something like lit-to-mye-zritz-se). per usual, i remember shockingly little from the tour so almost all of the following information is from wikipedia. litoměřice was established in the 10th century and remained fairly intact throughout history. the symbol of city is a chalice (see photo below) and one of the coolest parts is that a bunch of cellars are connected underground via tunnels, which we got to see firsthand at the restaurant we went to for lunch. 

also, just for pavel: the original town wall was built in the gothic style.

after our tour, we went to go eat lunch and then headed to ploskovice castle, where anna, one of the study abroad directors, LIVED. yes, she lived in a castle (because her mom was one of the caretakers) so she grew up alongside crystal chandeliers and ridiculous ceiling paintings. anna gave us the castle tour and she had her own KEY which was awesome. plus we got to sit on the castle furniture! epic. there was also a cave-esque cellar downstairs that was built to keep people cool during the summers. seriously, great stuff. i also got to see some more peacocks (i think i'm up to peacock sighting #4).

then we went wine tasting at velké zernoseky. yes, we went wine tasting on a school trip = another reason why i love europe. we first got a tour of the wine cellar which was really cool - we saw bottles that were fermenting (or whatever the proper term is) and then sat down to sample seven types of wine (five white wines, two red wines). they didn't really tell us how to properly taste the wine (nothing about whether we should swirl it, whether we should smell it, etc) but that's alright. it was a great time. we made some neat art with toothpicks, ate a lot of bread and cheese, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. once we returned to prague, karin, kyra and i went to get thai food at lemon leaf before calling it a night.

on thursday night, i went to an international club-organized party in mala strana with kyra, jeannie, karin, and pranadhi. we got english flags painted on our faces, went to mcdonald's at 3am, and took some quality pictures. a good night, i'd say.

as the weather gets warmer, i've noticed two things happening:
1) there is an inverse relationship between the temperature and my level of productivity.
i'm not sure how i'm going to manage getting work done in the next three weeks. i have four final papers, and three of them are 10+ pages, which is pretty legit. and requires research. however, i spent sunday "working" outside, going to see the lennon wall, then sitting in the park. uh-oh. i feel sort of torn because on one hand i am not a good student in prague and feel like i should try more.. but on the other hand i KNOW next semester is going to compensate several times over for what i'm not doing this semester (i think rubenstein's three hour class is going to be more work than this entire semester) so i might as well enjoy my semester abroad. i can already tell you the latter is going to win.  

2) there is a direct relationship between the temperature and the number of tourists in prague.
nicki (the program director) told me that during the peak of tourist season, there are so many tourists on charles bridge that you can't even cross it. now that we're reaching may, i can totally believe it. i'm glad i decided to come abroad in the spring to see prague transition from winter to spring, but i'm also glad i won't be here for the height of tourist season. 

speaking of tourists. my mom is coming to prague on wednesday night and we are definitely going to hit all the tourist places. not only am i excited to show my mom around prague, we are going back to cesky krumlov, which is going to be INCREDIBLE :))))))

one last note: why the hell is MGMT playing at yale's spring fling? i can't believe we don't get to reap the benefits of MGMT being wes alums. LAME.

just kidding!

yay spring :)

ok, so it's sunday night and i actually do have to do a little bit of work (tragic) since my mom is coming on wednesday (!!!) and i want to show her around prague and not have to do "homework." but! two quick updates.

1) our cerge trip to litomerice = so. amazing. expect details soon about more peacock sightings and wine tasting.

2) i have a place to live in paris!! well, almost. i just have to figure out a way to pay the deposit. but it's about 10 minutes outside of paris and it's with a french family. YESSSSSSS!

destination: nowhere.

looking for housing in one city is hard, but trying to find a place to live in two different cities/countries/continents when you're already abroad is giving me a headache. mostly because i've been unsuccessful.

sigh. i miss this:

anyhow. fingers crossed that i won't be homeless for three months. and REUNION. THIS. SUMMER. it will be epic.

also, it hasn't quite hit me that i'll be returning to wes as a senior. my friends will be living in woodframes. i'm going to write a thesis. WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN? i can still remember moving into the butts freshman year, going to dinner at 5pm every day at summerfield's, bringing leetly to an a cappella concert in the chapel, taking the zwellmaster's class...  time really flies.