The Lack of Posts

I want to apologize for the lack of posts recently. There has been a lot going on (trying to design a 100+ page book, for one) and Blogger has been unusually..crappy lately.

I will try and update on the last few weeks as soon as possible.

Vienna!

I am posting this from Vienna, Austria – home of lederhosen and strudel.

David, Stewart, Susan, Ashley, Lynsey, Katie and I departed from Prague at 3 am (yes, 3 am – we had to catch the night tram to get to the train station) to catch our train to Vienna. Everything went super-smoothly, which was fantastic.

At the train station in Vienna we met Katie's uncle (she is actually staying with him this weekend), who works for the UN. He gave us his cell phone and the UN's number just in case. It's kind of nice to have a person to call, but seriously, I do not want to ever have to call him.

David, Susan, Stewart, Ashley, Lynsey and I caught the tram to our hostel, Wombat's. This place is crazy – they run a bar, etc., and all 6 of us are staying in one room. It feels like a big middle school sleepover.

The plans for the weekend are:

Today:
- Museum (not likely, as David and Lynsey are asleep and I am sitting here on my laptop)
- 6 pm – Dinner and drinks while we watch the soccer game in the bar here. there are people from all over the US here, so it's a great opportunity to meet them!

Saturday:
- Walking tour of Vienna, with stops at the Hapsburg Palace and Innere Stadt and a picnic lunch (thanks for all the peanut butter, my travel companions love you!)
- Some sort of music? and dinner?

Sunday:
- Bikes around Vienna, doing things we saw and didn't get to on Saturday
- Train back to Prague at 6:30.




I will update soon, the computer is dying.

Berlin vs. Prague

When we were in Berlin, I noticed several differences in the atmosphere/people.

I feel like Prague is all about history. By history I mean how the Czech people have been repressed and how proud they are of their buildings and their culture. They seem annoyed with the tourists (even though tourism is the main influx of money here). They want to remember their origins and past, even though (as Milan Kundera writes) they have been changed by so many other countries that it is almost impossible.

Berlin, on the other hand, is all about forgetting. Forgetting about World War II, forgetting about the concentration camps and forgetting about the giant scar that is still in the city. The modern buildings (which are still being built – there are cranes everywhere) have no history. Even the historical buildings (like the Reichstag) have been adapted and changed to fit in with the new modern look of the city.

It's like I'm trying to compare orchids and lilies; they are so similar but so different and I like them both. But parts of each city appeal to me more, like the Prague how much value tradition has, and how in Berlin they are more progressive and less hostile? to American tourists.

I think you really just need to experience it for yourself :)

Berlin Day 3! (June 7th)

Day 3 in Berlin started off the best way possible – an All-You-Can-Eat Breakfast Buffet at the restaurant on the corner for only 4.90 Euros. We're talking chicken wings, fish, cheeses, fruit, eggs, bacon, ham, cereal, applesauce....the works. And every single thing that I tried was delicious. I ate 2 plates...I know. But it was so good.

The group went on a walk to a flea market near the hostel and then to the Berlin Wall. The flea market was pretty cool – there were more artists selling their goods than just tables full of junk. Two of the tables were really cool – Yackfou T-Shirts (they gave David 3 posters for free – I am totally stealing one!) and Mateo.

We walked down to the wall, which was pretty neat/sad/a wall. I know it means a lot, but seeing "Jenny Loves Bobby 4Eva" and other graffiti on it kind of dampened the historical-ness of it for me. And it was about 500 degrees in the shade (I could feel my skin writhing in pain), so I was ready to get out of the sun.

We made it to the train station and got on the train to go back to Prague. Scott didn't come with us (he is curating a project in Berlin and Maura is taking over our studio).

We got back into Prague at almost 10, where I thankfully jumped back into my bed and enjoyed the peace of only having 3 other people in my room.

It was a good trip, but we have crit now. So more on my thoughts later.

Berlin - Now with 100% More Video! (June 7th)

I got up, grabbed a delicious breakfast from the cafe on the corner, and then our entire group headed out to NODE Design Studio in Berlin to meet with the designers. They (Anders Hofgaard and Serge Rompza) were pretty young guys - about 28 I think. They showed us their work, which was amazing.

It was like a MILLION degrees outside, so we headed off to find a Bier garden. But at the tram station, the group kind of fell apart. Some people wanted to go to museums, some people wanted to see the wall, and it was just really really frustrating. David, Stewart, Ashley, Susan and I ended up going with Scott out towards the museums, but we stopped at a restaurant first. During our lunch Scott started to come down with a migraine, so he decided to go back to the hostel and take a nap. David, Stewart, Ashley, Susan and I then went out towards Museum Island (yes, really an island).

Fountain

Detail

Palace?

Type on a sign

This is an example of why you have to zoom in on vector drawings. Especially when they are published on museum signs.
Even more so when a graphic design major is looking at your sign.

We went to the Pergamon Museum to see the Byzantine sculptures and artifacts that were there. It only cost 4 euros to get in ($6)....and it was so hot.

Susan enjoying the cool marble floor

So, so hot. Apparently Germans are tough enough not to need air conditioning. After about an hour, we were all just...exhausted. When we left the museum, we stumbled on this group singing:

We decided to go on a boat tour in order to relax a little. Our boat left at 6:30 and it was great to just sit in the breeze and relax. I was so relaxed that I decided not to take any pictures.

After the boat tour we went in search of an American Apparel. David is out of socks, and I really wanted some more plain t-shirts so that I could avoid laundry. But we got there at 8:45, and they closed at 8. Oh well.

We headed back to the hostel and finally made it there at about 9:45, where we met up with the rest of the graphic group. They had already eaten dinner, and we hadn't, so David, Stewart, Susan, Ashley and I walked about 3 blocks away from the hostel to a chinese restaurant, appropriately named China Restaurant. The service was fantastic, the food was really great, and they even kept the restaurant open late so that we could finish our meal. I really appreciated the attentiveness and lack of judgement? I guess about us being Americans.

After dinner we headed back to the hostel (it was almost 11:30 by this time) and I decided to go ahead and crash. I really needed a bit of alone time, and thankfully I got it.

Berlin Day 1! (June 6th)

We got up super early (okay, only like...6:45am) and our graphic design group got ready to meet our instructors (Scott, Maura and her friend Elaine). The previous night they had seriously stressed the fact that we needed to be ready to leave the Pension at 7:30 am or we would be left. So there we were, ready, at 7:30...but they weren't. We ended up waiting until almost 7:50 before they arrived.

We all headed to the Metro Station and took it to the main train station in Prague. The station really looked like an abandoned airport (I wish I had a picture of it for you). We power-walked to the platform and had about 5 minutes to spare before the train pulled up to the station.

The ride to Berlin was pretty uneventful - I slept for about 3 hours of it.

The train (L-R: Nancy and Scott)

Once I woke up, I was amazed at how much the countryside reminded me of home. The trees and fields and blue sky really could be in rural North Carolina. Except for the wind-farms, which pop up pretty regularly against the skyline. The windmills themselves are beautiful – tall, white and very sleek.

We passed through Dresden on the way into Berlin. It was the first big German city that we went through. I was surprised at the amount of modernist buildings that we saw - but then again, I wasn't. The firebombing of Dresden must have destroyed most of the 18th-century architecture that I'm so used to seeing in Prague.

Once we got to Berlin, we got lost. Not even kidding. We got off at the wrong stop (even though David and Stewart, who read a good bit of a Berlin guidebook before we arrived, kept mentioning that we really should get off). The place that we got off ended up being a giant mall, so a bunch of us went in to use the bathroom and get some Euros from the ATM. However, in the mall I had my first German dog sighting – a Westie! I definitely took it as a good sign.

Our tram stop in Berlin. A little scary.

It took a while to figure out how to get to the hostel that we were staying at, but once we did, it was worth it. The area that the hostel was in seriously could have been in Disneyworld. It was right beside a park, had a cobblestone street, and a bar on the corner with a red striped awning. BUT–

There always is a but, isn't there? All the girls in the program had to stay in one room together. 10 girls. In one room. A room about the size of, say, the kitchen in my apartment. Thankfully the beds were bunk-beds, but it was still pretty....intimate.

After we got settled (it was 4 pm by now) we went to the bar on the corner for dinner, which happened to be owned and run by the same people who ran our hostel. I decided on fish and chips, and pretty much everyone else ordered a cheeseburger. The food was AMAZING. And all the boys bought their first German beers, which were pretty great too :)
Once dinner settled, our group (minus two girls that decided to miss the group meeting to go shopping) went out to see the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag Building.

The Brandenburg Gate

The Reichstag Building

Walking up to the building (L-R: Rich, Ben, David, Ashley and Maura)

Needless to say, it was pretty cool. And I am SO happy with my pictures – I did all the settings myself (!) and think the results are pretty sweet. I think I actually got something out of the photography class!

Rich

Stewart on his 21st Birthday

German Sunset

Susan

Ben

Jessica

Nida

Statue on top of the Reichstag

Scott

This is actually a ventilation system for the building, but I prefer to call it the Laser Beam

Photo of what the Reichstag Building looked like after World War II

After we got tired of walking around, we hopped on the Tram and headed back to the neighborhood that our hostel was in. We decided to grab some dinner (for the people who didn't eat earlier) and drinks, because it was Stewart's 21st Birthday!!!!!

Buying a round of German Beer

Guys (L-R: Ben, Mark, David and Scott)

It was a lot of fun....obviously.

We got soo lost on the way back to the hostel – mainly because the people leading the group didn't really listen to everyone who was telling them that we really should turn here. We ended up getting back at around 2 in the morning.

Thursday, June 5th

Tomorrow my studio is going to Berlin!!!

7:30 am Friday: Depart for Berlin
Arrive at Ostbahnhoff at 1:13 pm

Schlafmeile Hostel
Weichselstrasse 25
10247 friedrichshain
(49) (30) 96514676



I'm pretty excited (if you couldn't tell)!

Tuesday, June 3rd

The big excitement on Tuesday was that our other professor, Maura, arrived from the States. She looked like I felt when I first got here - exhausted.

After class I decided that a nap was definitely needed. After my nap I went back to the Institute to try to do some more work...and ended up going to a different H+M with Jessica Straw. This H+M was at least 2 stories high (with a basement too) and was so much better than the first one that I went too. Much more my style, but...I'd rather go to Vienna. Clothes can come later.

After we got back to the Institute David and I cooked Italian Pasta for 13 people, including our professors. I was honestly pretty nervous - I didn't want Maura's first impression of me to be food poisoning! It's also really hard to cook for that many people - I have a new respect for chefs who do that on a daily basis. However, the dinner went really well and everyone left the table satisfied.

Later Ashley, Katie, Susan and I watched Eurotrip. I had never seen it...and since we are in Prague...why not? The movie wasn't that great, but I did recognize a building from the Andel section of Prague (when they were supposed to be in Germany, figures). I felt so worldly!

Bob

I needed to photograph an older man for my photography project, so I asked Bob Patterson if he would mind modeling for me. Bob is a professor at State; he is currently teaching the sustainability course here in Prague.



Lynsay and I ended up talking to Bob after we finished taking pictures, and he really touched me. He told us that he thinks that our generation is one of the most optimistic groups of people he has seen, and that the future will be bright with us in control. He said that he is happy and excited for his grandchildren to grow up in the world that we are going to create.

I hope I can live up to that.

Change of Plans

Plans changed. Again. But it's all good. I will be staying in Vienna, Austria from June 13th - June 15th! A group of 7 of us have already booked a hostel.


There is an International Graphic Design show in Brno - apparently we are going? And after that, a group of us are going to go to Chesky Krumlov for the weekend.


I will let you know when we re-finalize plans.

Monday, June 2nd

Today David and I decided to go on a boat cruse down the Volta River after class...for no real reason. It was only 200 crowns (about $13), and totally worth the money. The weather was perfect - hot in the sun but with a cool, strong breeze and not a cloud in the sky.

The view from the dock - from the Charles Bridge to the National Theater. The photochop work is a little weird, but you get the idea (click for a larger image).

Along the river

One of the other passengers

David!

This HUGE tour group was on the boat with us...apparently they were worn out

Proof that European women still don't shave their armpits...or maybe just her

David is not happy about that

The most expensive beer we've bought here yet (80 crowns - about $5)

Balloon!

Chair sculpture in front of the Modern Museum

After the boat tour ended (it was about an hour long), David and I went back to the Institute to meet up with our class and go to the Czech Writer's Festival. We listened to a panel of Czech writers, most of whom had been influential in the Prague Spring in 1968. It was pretty interesting - we had to use headphones in order to hear an English translation of everything that was being said. Our translator kept laughing at jokes and not finishing sentences...it really reminded me of the movie Charade.

Okay, so that's not the scene I was thinking about. But you should rent the movie, you'll know it when you see it.

Tonight we are making scrambled eggs, bacon and pancakes (with American maple syrup!) for dinner - I'm not gonna lie, I'm pretty excited about it!

Travel Plans

We finally got around to finalizing our travel plans for the next couple of weeks. Here they are:

June 6 - 9: Berlin, Germany

June 12 - 16: Salsburg, Austria

June 14 - 15: Vienna, Austria

June 19: Brno (for the International Graphic Design Show)

June 20: Chesky Budejovice (day trip to the Budvar Brewery)

June 20 - 22: Chesky Krumlov

Friday, May 30th - Sunday, June 1st

One of the joys of studying abroad is meeting new people. I really have enjoyed meeting people that I would have never met any other way - like my roommates, Katie and Victoria, and people from other programs. But. Living and working and sharing the same space as 50 other people can get really. Really. Really old. Especially when you are used to not having to share a bedroom or bathroom. Two showers and two bathroom stalls for 30+ girls, not including the other guests that stay on our floor.

I am totally not trying to complain. I knew the living conditions when I signed up for the program. I am just trying to explain why I needed a mini-vacation on Friday night - just to get away from the crowds.

David and I went across the Vltava river and stayed in the Andel section of Prague for a while. It was so nice to be able to have a conversation (like a couple!) without being interrupted and to just enjoy being on our own for a while.

I started to feel really congested on Friday - I took some Airborne but by Saturday, I knew I was sick. It takes about 6 months for your bones to heal after getting your wisdom teeth taken out, so the sinus pressure was really causing me some pain in my upper jaw. I ended up taking some Sudafed (which I thankfully brought with me) and napping for about 6 hours.

After my nap David and I went to the local Chinese (čínský) Restaurant near our hostel. It's basically a hole in the wall, but it has great food for super cheap prices. I ended up taking some Robitussin (my congestion quickly migrated down to my chest) and sleeping through the night.

On Sunday I woke up fairly early (11 am) in a puddle of sweat. The lack of air conditioning is really painful during the night. David and I packed up our stuff and ventured out to find Bohemia Bagel, a cafe near the Institute. The food was delicious - much better than Bruger's - and they even had free refills on drinks!

After eating David and I went to the Salvador Dali exhibition that was taking place in Old Town Square, in front of the Church of Our Lady Before Týn. The exhibit was mainly sketches, lithographs and ceramics of Dali's work. I have never really appreciated his work - I thought it was a little creepy and weird - but I really loved his sketches. The use of line and color are really inspiring and show what a master he is.

Bathroom Talk / Beauty Supplies (Friday, May 30th)

One thing that I have noticed in the Czech Republic is the variety in toilet designs. Each place that I have used the facilities at has a different style of toilet. The variety is in how you flush. Some have a button on the top of the water tank that you press; some have a knob on the water tank that you pull up. Some have wall-mounted large plate-like buttons that you press to flush (there is a lot of variety in those as well), and one that I have seen has a handle like the ones at home. It's crazy to me how foreign something like using the bathroom can be.

Czechs also seem to have a fascination with two beauty supplies: deodorant (or deodorant sprays) and hair dye. In Tesco, there were two full walls covered with boxes of hair dye, organized by brand and color. There were also three shelves covered with rows and rows of bottles of deodorant sticks and sprays in a variety of scents and strengths. I actually saw a woman smell a stick of deodorant and then apply it to her underarms in the middle of the store.

Anyway. There is a Dali Exhibition in Old Town Square; hopefully I will make it there this weekend.

Thursday, May 29th

I went to Tesco with David today to try and buy a couple of "beauty supplies" (nail polish, nail polish remover and hairspray). I had no idea how...hard? and intimidating it would be to find those simple things in a Czech store. No English on the packages...no English directional signs...just me, David and our marvelous senses of direction to divine where the nail polish remover might be. We found the hairspray and nail polish fairly easy....the nail polish remover, however, was completely different. David ended up smelling a bottle of something in order to make sure that it was, indeed, nail polish remover.

A saleswoman did ask me if we needed help (I think), but she spoke to us in Czech. I have no idea what to say when people speak to me in Czech. I said "Excuse me?" with a smile....I don't know what else to do. I feel so small here...just so...small.

So the Vienna trip kind of fell apart. Which actually is looking like a bit of a blessing, because next week is going to be really busy: my class is going to the opera, to a writer's conference (it's the Czech Writer's Festival next week), and then on Friday we are going to Berlin. Oh, and we have a final project due on Thursday. Not a bad week :). And I am looking to spending more time in Prague...even though it seems so big sometimes.

Color Flip Book

Pretty sweet

Vysehrad Castle

Today (Tuesday, May 27th) I went to Vysehrad Castle after a thrilling afternoon: the first experience with a Czech laundromat. It was clean, fast, and the staff was friendly. But it was also expensive. David and I washed and dried 2 loads of laundry and spent about $20. But then again, being able to wear my favorite t-shirt without running the risk of grossing out anyone is worth it.

Mark in Old Town Square

Stewart, David, Lynsey, Ashley, Lynsey's friend Jess from back home and I took the Metro to Vysehrad. We got off at the correct stop and were a little puzzled. The stop was at the base of a giant hotel (the Corinitha Hotel) and kind of..not near anything other than a conference center. There actually is a conference going on right now - the International Seed Federation Conference.

Anyway. We walked a little while (about 15 minutes) and found the entrance to Vysehrad.

Vysehrad is a key point in most Czech founding mythology (this information is cribbed from here):

Czech tribes led by the father Čech stopped their journey at the Říp mountain (about 50 km north of Prague). There he beheld the "land of milk and honey" and decided to settle. His brother Lech had separated from his tribe earlier and became the founder of the Polish nation (this explains why the Czechs and Poles are so close).

Libuše, Čech's grand daughter, ruled the Czech people after the death of her father Krok. She was gifted with prophetic powers and foresaw the founding of Prague. She resided at Vyšehrad and in one of her prophetic moments declared: "I see a large city whose fame touches the stars." She then sent builders into the woods where they found a man making a threshold (práh) which also gave a name to the new city (i.e. Praha)

I really like fairy tales. It's a little weird, but it still is a romantic little fairy tale.

Vysherad is absolutely beautiful. It is romantic, picturesque, every word you can use to describe it. And we didn't even get to the actual palace!

Grass on the way to Vysehrad....Seed Fest! Woop

Ashley!

Stew

In other news, I think I might be going to Vienna this weekend! And we are also beginning to finalize plans for a trip to either Budapest or the Czech countryside. I'll let you know what happens....

Language Barrier

One thing that was stressed by pretty much every study abroad officer during the application process and pre-departure meetings was that almost everyone in the Czech Republic speaks English. And that we shouldn't worry about trying to learn some Czech before we left.

Okay, so "almost everyone" isn't technically incorrect. But outside of the tourist-y areas, which make up about 15% of the city, about 75% of people speak Czech and extremely poor English. And that's where we live. And in most of the tourist-y areas, they speak to you in Czech first and would obviously prefer that you speak Czech.

This experience has been really uncomfortable for me. You know that people are talking about you - you can just tell - but you have no idea what they are saying. Sometimes you catch a little snippet that sounds like "Czech Czech Czech TOURIST Czech Czech AMERICAN Czech Czech." This, coupled with the Czech reserved nature, is very intimidating and unnerving.

It is making me rethink my stance on people who move into America without knowing the language. I always said that I would never move somewhere without having a decent grasp of the local language, and that I didn't understand how other people could do that. Well, technically I moved here (even if it's only for 6 weeks), and the overwhelming sense of just...exhaustion? that comes from trying to remember the right words and pronunciation and the embarrassment of getting things wrong is enough to make me not want to try to speak Czech some days.

All this and I have only been here a week! I will continue to try to practice my Czech and hopefully, by the end of my stay here, I will remember how to say please and thank you correctly.

Last Night, Part 2

Last night (Sunday, March 25th), Bob, one of the GER professors, stopped by the seating area that a group of us were in. Somehow, we started talking about the Czech way of viewing things. One thing that he said really struck me:

"It is so interesting to be in a culture that has no interest at all in controlling anything other than what it already has."

I thought about this a lot. And it really does make sense. After centuries of oppression, the Czechs really only want to have control over their own lives, their own property, their own country. As people who have experienced the negatives of occupation, they have no interest in doing the same to everyone else. This would explain the reserved introversion that most Czechs display.

I think that as Americans we have a completely different view than the Czechs because we have only had to deal with oppression once, and we threw a fit and got what we wanted. We have always had the resources and manpower to control our (huge) country.

Saturday, May 24th

I slept in until about 11 and woke up to the sounds of birds chirping and the sun shining through my window. The weather was amazing!

At about 3 David, Stewart, Lynsay, Rich and I took the Metro to Winceslas Square. The square was packed with tourists out enjoying the good weather. The group decided to try to make our way to the Dancing House ( or Fred and Ginger) that Frank Gehry designed, then to try to make our way up to Belvedere, the summer palace.

We started off on foot, thinking that walking would be the best way to get a some good photographs, but were quickly sidetracked when the guys saw a Subway. They actually had a drink machine (with ice!) and some great lighting:

Lynsey at Subway

After the boys ate we continued our journey:

The Street

Woman

We ended up kind of getting lost...we walked about a mile and a half further south than we needed to. But we ended up finding the Charles University Botanic Garden, which was absolutely wonderful.

The Greenhouse

David

Stewart

Rich

Being outside, in the gorgeous weather, and finding a beautiful garden and greenhouse to walk around in really lifted my spirits. I think everyone else felt the same way. I could have stayed in the garden for the rest of the day.

We left the garden and walked south a little farther until we found part of Charles University's campus. I was expecting it to be in some beautiful old building, but it wasn't. The buildings were all being repaired and just seemed really....normal? and kind of disappointing. However, we were the only people on the street - something that hasn't happened yet in Prague. It was nice to not have to worry about being loud and to kind of just goof off with the group.

L-R: David, Rich, Stewart and Lynsey

We backtracked a little and walked through a working class neighborhood and found a tram stop. We were all tired of walking, but still really wanted to see the Dancing House. It was so cool..but closed. I really wanted to see the inside...from the outside you kind of get one view...and thats it. It's still a cool building though. The best part of the building (to me, at least) was the view that you could get over the Vltava River towards Prague Castle.L-R: Stewart, Rich, Lynsey and David at the Dancing House

Stewart really needed to get internet, and we knew the Globe Bookstore was close, so we found it and went in. David said "It should be called the Globe Cafe with some books" - which is basically what it is - more cafe, less books. We all decided that we were starving and we ordered dinner. Which was CRAZY expensive. And my food wasn't that great, but they do have milkshakes...so...yeah.

We never made it to Belvedere. But I will be here for another 5 weeks...which I am starting to become very happy about :)