Fakt, yo? (oh really?)

This weekend was quite adventurous.

Friday morning we had another Czech class, which several of us were late for because we were lost in the city buying cell phones. Who knew that would take 3 hours? I mean, really. After class, we went on a tour of Prague castle and the surrounding areas. The entire 700 or so years of history can be summed up in: All their politicians live in this castle. They don't have much power, but they do have several mistresses. When the political situation gets rocky, some people get thrown out the windows, this happens often. Inside the castle they have 2 churches, take that separation of church and state.

Friday night, we hit the bar scene for the first time (oooooooooh jetlag!) and found quite and interesting array. Almost all bars close around 11pm (or 23 as they say here) because they are weird. But the clubs stay open all night. Literally. We met a very intoxicated gentleman who was peeing as he walked down the street. *shudder* As three of us tried to find our way home, we discovered that not only do the tram numbers and tracks change at night, but we had no idea what stop our home would be. SURPRISE! So we rode the tram to the end of the line to try to see if we saw anything familiar. Nope. So at 3am we were in the suburbs of Prague with no idea when or how we would get home. See? Adventurous. Needless to say, we made it home. But it was only because of the divine intervention I felt a pull to get off at a certain station and BAM our dorm was around the corner.

Saturday Christina (my roommate) and I really just needed a break, so we went to the zoo! It's apparently like the 6th best zoo in the world (Disney is the best, duh). There are pics up on facebook (the link is in the left hand column). We saw lions and tigers and 2 polar bears. Oh my! It was a lot of fun to just relax and not have to learn or look like a stupid tourist or anything. I mean, everyone looks like a tourist at the zoo (look at the locals!). The one issue was the bat exhibit didn't really have what we in the United States call an enclosure. Yeah. Bats everywhere. It was horrifying. They were technically like tucked into a cave and we were outside the cave, but they kept dive bombing our general location and then flying up that the last minute! Needless to say, we got out of there. But the zoo as a whole was great, and we really enjoyed a relaxing day. We finished with a nice pasta dinner outside Wenceslas square at The Green Tomato. It was delish. Unlike Russian restaurants, they actually give you really food sizes. In Russia, the worst thing was that when we ordered, say, a chicken breast it came on the plate by itself all lonely. But here is more like American restaurants that give you a bigger portion. For pasta at least, the food is genrally inexpensive. We can usually eat out, a good meal of pasta, for about 140 Kč, which is about $7. That's including the water/beer/Coca-cola light (which all run 20-30Kč) and the bread and condiments that you are charged for. Of course, I usually eat vegetarian, so that helps. My roommate's chicken dinner tonight was 178Kč and my vegetable one was 138Kč total, so life really isn't bad.

Today, I went to the Holocaust Memorial in the Jewish History Museum that I am writing my thesis on. There sure is plenty of material to write about! It's almost totally visual (which is what my thesis is specifically about: visual representations). Since it's a memorial, not a museum, about the Holocaust, I think I am going to reframe some of my thesis because I can't really compare it as well the the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in the exhibits, but I'll figure that out when the time comes. The same $10 pass gets us into 6 synagogue/museums for 48 hours. Who says Jews are cheap?

The highlight of the day was when Christina and I went to the train station to price out tickets to Krakow for this weekend (!!) and we had no idea where we were besides what metro station. By our superior navigation skillz we found our way to Wenceslas square, which is very central in the city and easy to get home from. BAM. We literally high fived in the street. TOURISTS. From there, we went on an epic wander to find a supermarket call Albert. Not Albert's. Just Albert. Most of the grocery stores here are really small, family run things that only have the necessaries. (Like kiwis, oddly enough, which are everywhere). Albert is more like an American grocery store, which has everything. It's 2 floors! We bought 1 pot to cook things in, some spaghetti and sauce, apples, eggs, almonds, butter, tea, milk and cereal, and bread and jelly to partner with my American peanut butter (they don't sell peanut butter in Europe usually. Cuz they crazy). We discovered this amazing cookie called Mila, which is basically a chocolate covered sugar wafer and these potato crisps (more like a cheeto than a chip in texture) called Super Hearts. SO GOOD. We also invested in some dish and clothes detergent (2 separate things) and a little spatula. Split down the middle, the shopping trip cost us each $18. Win. I love Eastern Europe.

Tomorrow we start classes. Holocaust class starts at 9am, which I think is the crime against humanity here. "Reading Prague", our cultural history through literature and art class, starts tomorrow too, which I'm really excited about. We don't really have a lunch break, but rather 2 half hour breaks between our 3 classes (Czech language being the third). I think I'm going to just pack a PB&J, if I can find a little baggy. None of us can believe we've only been here 4 days, it seems like we've been here forever. I'm already making rude comments about the number of tourists in "my" city. I think the only place I heard Czech on the street was in the grocery store! European tourists are on this place like the Czech people on beer. Like Russians on vodka. Like white on rice. I mean, all over it.
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Emily