back...

back in NC. in the heat. except it's cooler than Paris. But in my own bed, with my newly-rediscovered non-winter clothes, and in a place that is completely familiar no matter how long I've been gone. That might have been the strangest part, having gotten used to so many new, unfamiliar sights and places, and coming back to a new place that is not at all new, it is familiar in the fullest sense of the word. I didn't want to leave Prague that last day, but I knew I would be glad I was home once I got here. And I am. But I will miss things. I miss the parks (even the one our project redesigned and even if it was left as it is, vast and flat and monotonous, but still a park), the public transportation (trams are fun, by the way), and the people (even if I couldn't understand them). I'll miss the history and the beauty, and the constant reminders that my life has followed in the footsteps of thousands if not millions or billions (depending on your perspective) before me. I don't have a top-ten list, but all those would make it. I wouldn't turn down an opportunity to go back.

it's going to eat you.

it's going to eat you, originally uploaded by jumu556.

a clip from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, previewing and announcing the world-record-setting coconut orchestra in Trafalgar Square. We couldn't stay to be part of it, but witnessing the crowd, the giant floating foot (pictures of that will be uploaded eventually), the clips on the big screen... it was entertaining enough. If you look close, you can pick out some crusaders in the crowd. We're having fun. We leave for Paris friday morning (early, early, and too early). That evening we'll go to a branch of Elizabeth's church in London, Hillsong, that meets in Paris (services in English and French, fortunately for me since my french is not quite so fresh in my mind as it was 2 years ago in high school). The weather is supposed to be gorgeous, it will be the warmest weather I've had since NC. The highs are right at 79/80 and sunny. yay spring. I may have to buy a t-shirt to bump up my non-winter clothing count to 2... we'll see. And then after that back to RDU! It'll be good. After that last week in Prague working in studio 12 hours a day... this is good.

4 days

In 4 days I fly out of Prague to London. 10 days after that, I'll be heading back to N.C. I think that's crazy... I couldn't have been here 3 months already, could I have? Well I don't have too much time to think about it, with our project due in 3 days. By the way, spring here is beautiful. I wish I could be spending every one of these last days wandering through parks, or at least somewhere outside where I can feel the breeze and smell the cherry blossoms. siiiiiigh. Well, topo lines and trace paper are calling my name, better get back to them.

acknowledgements and reflections

so... is this when you look back at the things that were the bane of your existence in middle school and realize maybe something about them was somewhat worth it? maybe?

Today was sort of my last day or Czech class. We all took what could be a final test today, but if we didn't do well enough to satisfy ourselves she would consider it a practice and we could take another one next week. I finished mine up and let her grade it then so I could see how I did and if I'd want to take it again. There were some things that I wasn't especially confident about, like I usually forget to check whether the masculine word is inanimate or not and I end up conjugating it like it's animate, and I also wasn't sure about the third person past tense, whether I dropped the "je" and "jsou" for every verb or just for byt... But it turned out I remembered most of it so I won't have to retake it again next week.

As I was going to leave Lenka, our teacher, talked to me a bit because she said she didn't know if she'd see me again and wanted to say I had done a very good job and seemed to have a gift for languages. I still am only at a point where I can translate things from English to Czech if I sit down and write it out and spend a few minutes thinking about it, and going over my most common mistakes to make sure I'm not doing them. Put me in front of a store clerk who doesn't speak English and wants to know where and how long and what we are studying, and I blank out (that happened last week, all I could say was "nemluvim cesky moc dobre" I don't speak Czech very well). But Lenka said it was because the class was so big (big being maybe 8-10 of us at most) that she couldn't practice verbal exercises with us individually without boring the rest of us, so she taught more of a basic understanding of how the language works. I said I was glad I had taken it though, just for a chance to learn about it even if I don't foresee it becoming applicable in my immediate future. And I am glad I learned it some, though it still frustrates me that I can't really speak it, I can only write a little of it. She said it would be useful also if I ever need to learn another Slavic language, like Polish or Russian, or another language that's structured in the same way.

Then I commented that I had taken Latin before (see, here comes the bane of my existence part; it just took me a bit of explaining to get there), even though I don't really remember any of it. She seemed impressed and said that it probably helped a lot, having a foundation in that kind of language. I was probably still familiar with the structure even if I couldn't remember any of my Latin beyond amo, amas, amat (I believe that was taught that first day of Latin in 3rd grade, by the way). So even something as despised as Latin was, especially towards those last few years in middle school have apparently come in useful. I am exaggerating, I didn't despise it, but I didn't really like it. I was very happy to get a chance to learn french in high school, a language people actually currently speak. And I hoped and still hope to never have to study it again, (beyond perhaps some botanical classifications).

I must confess there is one more bane of my middle school existence that proved itself somewhat useful in Czech class: the horror of diagrammed sentences. Not the actual diagramming itself, but what I learned from it. I learned what is an object, direct object, indirect object, object of a preposition, etc. I learned it whether I wanted to or not, based on what sort of diagram you put it on. Because Czech uses declensions and endings on nouns and adjectives to tell what's happening in a sentence, knowing what those things are did help. The first case we learned was accusative, the case a noun (or pronoun and any adjectives describing it) is in when it is the direct object. Lenka first explained it this way, which, when given a little thought and an example or two I understood from all those sentences and lines and bars and slanted lines I had to draw. But the rest of the lesson was spent explaining what a direct object was in English, because apparently a lot of English classes hadn't gone so specifically into grammar. The same sort of situation occurred when we covered personal pronouns that differ if the "him" or "you" in question is the direct object or object of a preposition, and also in the locative case, using objects of prepositions denoting location. Diagrammed sentences and grammar workbooks... who'd have thought that stuff would actually come in handy?

I am taking no credit for knowing or remembering or even ever learning all this grammar or Latin in the first place. It was very much against my will that I did all those silly worksheets and exercises and studied for the tests, but I did them. I know I have no right to take pride in knowing something I really didn't want to know and saw no point in learning (and probably complained way too much about, sorry, Mom!), originally, even if it did turn out to be applicable somewhere...

So I hope this entry isn't coming across as a patting-myself-on-the-back-for-being-so-smart, but more an acknowledgment that even some of those things I really didn't like have actually proved themselves useful, and were (possibly) worth it to have learned.

Now my math on the other hand... I'm still waiting for that to come in useful.

st. nicholas corner scroll sketch

st. nicholas corner scroll sketch, originally uploaded by jumu556.

One little scroll in one little corner in one of the side-chapels (this one was dedicated to St. Barbara) in St. Nicholas' church in Lesser town. My drawing teacher said "It's ok you only do a detail, people can look at that and tell it is Baroque, it is good." I was pretty proud of mysell for getting the perspective on the shaded edge fairly accurate. She helped me some with the proportions of the scroll and edge, those proportions trip me up, sometimes.

daylight

The days here have already outstripped those back in NC-latitude, and I can tell. This morning I woke up at 6:45, and thought it was 8:45 (from a combination of misreading the clock, it was already really bright, and I was hungry) and woke Allison up asking why her alarm hadn't gone off to realize I still had two hours to sleep. Sunrise is at 6:30, but it gets brighter before that. Our east facing windows with yellow curtains help by radiating the light through the room. Sunset is at 7:40, it stays so light so late now that I don't think we've eaten before 7:00 very recently. It's just so bright outside you don't think of eating until it's already 7 or 7:15. Of course the endless pile of trace and marker on my desk waiting to be combined to form brilliance and elegance and who knows what else they expect adds motivation to stay in studio later. I compared on my dashboard widget that shows sunrise and sunset times, Prague already has about 20-25 minutes of daylight more than Raleigh. It's a strange feeling. By the day lengths I feel it should be late April or May, but by the temperature and the leaves that are only just now opening, it should be early March. My subconscious doesn't know what to make of this spring. I think I like it, though.

Bridge over the Mosel Valley

bridge over the Mosel valley, originally uploaded by jumu556.

thought I'd post a photo from Germany, as I'm headed there again tomorrow, just a closer part. We leave for Berlin tomorrow at 8am, and get back monday night at 9pm. It'll be an amazing trip for the architecture and landscape architecture. I'm taking my camera, and have my friend's extra memory cards if I run out of space. I still might be shooting on a lower quality setting, though, since probably most of them will be for my own record of places and not for big prints... Ok, well better go, have a good palm sunday weekend, everybody!

symphonies operas concert halls

Last saturday night Allison and I went to a symphony concert in Dvorak hall in the Rudolfinum. I ordered the tickets online, they were only 100 crowns ($5) for seats anywhere in the house, we chose row 7. It was the Pilsen Philharmonic Orchestra and the Prague Philharmonic Choir. Turns out it was part of a series of Prague Premiers, which means this was the first time the music we listened to had ever been performed. It was really amazing.

The first piece used the orchestra, including the massive and very ornate organ. The second piece was the orchestra and a soprano, (Liana Sass (forgive me, it makes it seem more important if I name the people as if you know them)) who was amazing. The last piece was the whole time after the intermission, I think at least an hour or maybe an hour and a half. It had the orchestra, choir, the soprano, as well as a tenor (Michal Leotsky) and a baritone (Roman Janal).

I enjoyed those three, especially during the parts where none of them were singing. Liana would have her chin lifted, eyes looking away dreamily, as she contemplated the music. Michal Leotsky would be staring at the music stand in front of him. always. Roman Janal would survey the audience or his fellow vocalists with a haughty expression on his face.

Another interesting thing was that after each piece, during the applause, the conductor would motion to the back and the composer would come up on stage to shake and thank and congratulate and be thanked and congratulated and applauded. I hate to admit it, but it did take us until after the second piece to realize they were the composers, we had sort of forgotten the series was premiers of new pieces. But it was fun. The first, according to the program, was called Verdoyances Crepuscules by Kimmo Hakola, of Finland. The second one was At the Yellow Emperor's time, by John Frandsen of Denmark. And the last, and longest was called Requiem by a Czech, Juraj Filas. He got the largest applause. We also were proud of ourselves for understanding a few words of it! We heard the baritone singing "REQUIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEM" (he had quite a powerful voice, perhaps the source of his haughty expressions?) And I also understood the choir at one point when they sang "Sanctum Dominum" over and over again. The conductor liked that part, he was dancing along to it.

On Monday night, we remembered at the last moment that we had tickets to the opera (one of our school outings, and as our director was in London for the Dolly Parton concert, there was some confusion about if we had the tickets and where they were and who was going). It was a czech opera, Tajemstvi (Secrets), the last of Smetana's operas, apparently. Luckily for us, there were english subtitles. That didn't completely help us decipher what was going on. I had a slight advantage because I had read a summary of it beforehand, but partly because of the minimalist stage sets, it was still kind of confusing. I wasn't over-awed with the story, more so with the music and the room. This performance was in the National Opera house.

Both performances were impressive, and I'm glad I went. I feel more cultured now, even though for lack of time I'm ashamed to say I attended the opera in corduroys and sneakers. Luckily we were not the only "d*** tourists" as our czech professor lamented when we told him we had no time to change for it. In fact almost all the upper galleries were filled with people dressed as casually as we were. Well I believe I've rambled long enough on this entry, tune in next time to hear about why french and czech are confusing my head.

drawing in the cold and st. nicholas' church

Drawing is our final class of the week. Technically, it's an LAR class, but really it's just an introductory drawing class, because none of us have really had a serious drawing class before. We started off drawing white cardboard cubes, progressed to perspective for one week, and then spent two weeks on figure drawing. Our model was approximately 65 years old, spoke no english, and was fairly vocal (having our drawing instructor translate). She enjoyed hearing herself sigh, too.

After that, we've been drawing mostly outside views or details around different parts of Prague. We've also drawn in a modern art gallery, and today in St. Nicholas' church on the lesser town side of the river. Now only one of those places that we've drawn in this past month has even pretended to have heat, since most of them were outdoor locations, that makes sense. The Manes art gallery did have radiators, but we only went there after drawing for an hour or two outside on the island where the gallery is, so I was still not very thawed out while I was drawing the spaces inside it. And it's Prague, and the few weeks of "warm spring" weather we had a while back have passed in favor of the cooler more normal end of winter weather. Today the high was 5 degrees Celsius, 41 degrees Fahrenheit, gray and windy. That, combined with maybe a few threatening raindrops has been typical for our drawing excursions.

Today, sitting and sketching in the (amazingly gorgeous and extravagantly opulent baroque style) church with my finger-less gloves, my ski jacket, and fleece hat on, seeing my breath in front of me, I was reminded of my optimism from the first few colder drawing outings. I remember thinking "well, if I learn to draw steadily with frozen hands, hopefully that will mean my lines will be extra straight and precise when my fingers actually have feeling in them!" The lines turned out pretty well, today, on the scroll detail I sketched. My straight lines were better than my curved ones, though, which was probably unfortunate for this particular church. Our teacher told us that the style of Baroque used often in central Europe and exemplified in St. Nicholas' is dynamic baroque. Basically everything is a curve, everything implies motion and invites you to move both with your eyes and physically. So there is almost no straight, parallel surfaces, certainly not on the details (which was all I attempted to draw) They're all curving and swirling and bending and angling different directions.

It's an amazing church, I'm going to have to go back with my camera. It also has a massive organ, (I think actually two) on which someone began to rehearse before we left, so I also plan on going back for one of their organ concerts. This is also a good church to visit because it's mostly for tourists so you can walk all around the main floor and there's part of the upstairs gallery open, also, so you can see the architecture and frescoes from a different angle. It was really amazing, as I believe I've mentioned before. Well, my hands have warmed up now after walking back to studio, it's time for dinner. Enough reflections on cold hands and beautiful churches, I'm hungry.

visits, weather, beauty.

Visits make me happy. It was really good having my sister come over the weekend, I got a chance to be a tourists for a few days. We walked over the Charles bridge, around the castle, and took a tour of Jewish town and several historical synagogues. I also introduced her to czech food (beef with cream sauce and dumplings!) and the intellectual hangout, Cafe Louvre (I've never said no to a chance to have their amaaaaaaazing hot chocolate, it's sort of like very rich very dark hot chocolate pudding that you drink) and we also sampled two of their dessert choices. The weather was colder and rainy, unfortunately, but it was still good to see a familiar face and get out and to have an excuse to get out and see the city. Regardless of weather or the amount of mobs of Italians or British that seem to follow you everywhere, Prague is still a beautiful city. (I hope you agree, Elizabeth, since that was the only condition in which you saw it!). And despite the return of semi-wintry weather (bleah. gray. windy. drizzly.) I'm still enjoying a little snapshot of spring with a small pot of daffodils I bought yesterday. I think flowers are one of the best things you can spend a little money on, even though to our american practical sensibility they have no purpose. But they are so beautiful and delicate, I think "wasting" a little money on beauty every once in a while is very much worthwhile.

crocuses opening

crocuses opening, originally uploaded by jumu556.

I would like to present this as proof that spring is indeed on its way, here in middle europe. And perhaps proof of global warming... if you consider crocuses do not normally bloom in Prague for another few weeks, or so I've been told. It's beautiful weather, though. Anyone up for a visit?

back... and thoughts on classes and opportunities

I'm back in Prague now, successfully navigating airports to and from our destination in western Germany, and the part in between the flights was soo fun... I don't know... just a really good time. Now I'm back and running in the everyday here in Prague. We've got to put our nose to the grindstone for our studio project, it's a pretty intense project that's really stretching all of us. Partly because the site is a little over a kilometer long... (!!!) and there's all sorts of other crazy factors that are involved. But we have an amazingly good teacher and professor in Martin, and he's definitely pushing us to do our best, beyond that, even.

We're also putting together a booklet of design principles - our second assignment was to basically take a word that one could use to describe a place (mine was mystery, as I've mentioned before, I think), and explore what physical factors about a place contribute to creating that feeling in the place. So pick apart the word and meaning and feeling and put it all back together again in a 4-6 pages, using our own sketches and photos and illustrations. So we're working on ideating for studio, on the layout and content of our parts of the booklet.

Then there's our czech class... czech is a tough language and it's harder because our class only meets on monday and tuesday of each week, which leaves 5 days in between to forget everything and usually results in everyone cramming a lot sunday afternoon/evening (or monday morning). It's fun though, I'm enjoying it. Even though I can only work things out on paper... there's no way I could hold a conversation... but at least as of today I technically can conjugate any verb in past, present, and future tense, and can decline nouns in the accusative and instrumental cases. We'll be working on more of those declensions, soon.

And beekeeping, this friday we're going on a field trip to Kutna Hora under the auspices of visiting a beekeeping museum, but also because it's a beautiful city within driving distance, (they've gotten a charter bus for us, apparently). And who knows what recipe we'll make in the second half of this weeks' class tomorrow... I'm sure it will match the honey cake and honey-gingerbread cookies in deliciousness. Although I'm a little concerned about the final, but of course that's a good month away still.

Our drawing class is so much fun, it only meets on thursday afternoons (our last class of the week). Our teacher is so nice, and very good at helping us and pointing out ways to improve our techniques. She normally teaches elementary-age children, so her patience is never-ending. None of us have really had a formal drawing class before, and we're all benefiting from the instruction. I just wish I could find more time during the rest of the week to draw some, not only in class. Now that the weather's better... maybe I will. maybe...

The opportunities here are so abundant, I'd have to be practically unconscious all day to not learn something somehow... But it's a new sort of juggling, between being on an extended holiday in a new foreign place but still devoting enough time to studio and the other classes to satisfy myself I've done my best at them. And our time here seems so short... shorter with each beautiful spring day that passes (no more winter for us, it's been a very mild winter), they're saying blue skies and warm weather practically until we leave at the end of April. well that's about all my brains' thinking about at the moment, that and summer plans and classes for the fall... once i get my photos from Germany up I'll post some about that.

hooray for being a tourist!

Spring break started off well, once it got going. Saturday we tried 3 different churches/museums, all of them were closed, and it was gray and rainy and bleah. So to console ourselves, we ate at KFC and decided to try another exhibit that we saw was actually open and not too expensive for student tickets. It was the Alphonse Mucha exhibit, right on old town square, and it was worth it. He was the art nouveau artist most famous for his paintings and illustrations, but he also designed jewelery, stained glass, and even a store front. He was Moravian, (that is, czech), but had most of his success in Paris. All they had in the exhibit were lithographs of his print work, but it was still worth it.

After leaving the Mucha exhibit, we continued on back to one of the churches that had been closed for a wedding, and luckily for us, the wedding was over and we could go in and take our tourist pictures. It was the church of St. Nicholas considered a Baroque masterpiece, and there will be photos coming onto my flickr site... I'm just a week or so (at least) behind at uploading them.

That night, after eating some take-out lasagna (would've been good... if it were heated up...), we went to a concert my drawing teacher had told us about. It was being held in the gallery where we've been sketching the spaces in it and the views from it, the Manes gallery. It was a piano and violin concert, and only cost us a dollar for student tickets, which we considered well worth it. They played some works by Czech composers, and some others, too, but both the pianist and the violinist were amazing. Plus you could really tell they were having fun. It wasn't a big crowd by any means, but certainly very persistent in the applause. No piece finished with out the performer(s) having to exit and reenter and bow again at least 3 times because everyone clapped for so long. Allison and I debated whether it was a cultural thing, to bow, walk off, pause, (still loud applause) walk back on, bow, walk off, pause (continued loud applause), walk on again, bow again, finally walk off and the applause ceased, or if it was just a very enthusiastic crowd. At the end they had to come back on 5 times. All considered, it was a satisfying day enjoying Prague.

Sunday we went to a park on the outskirts of Prague called Divoka Sarka, it's a beautiful kind of wilderness place with rocky hills that have been sliced through by creeks. There were lots of people walking, riding bikes, strolling children, but that didn't take away from the beauty of the place at all. And being a little chilly, it promoted walking a little faster than usual, so it helped us burn off our second fast food lunch in two days. It was nice to be out of the city, and to look up and see rocky mossy cliffs instead of city blocks. Not that I'm complaining about the architecture and history to be seen around Prague, I just like some trees and moss every now and then.

This morning I visited the Charles University botanical garden that's in the city, about 15 minutes by tram from our hostel, also from old town. There was one azalea blooming, and the snowdrops and crocuses (croci?) were out in full force. I had fun taking some pictures of those. Also to be uploaded at some undetermined time in the future. This afternoon we plan on going to the National Museum at the top of Vaclavske Namesti (that's Wenceslas Square), we read somewhere that it's free admission the first monday of the month.

Not sure yet about tomorrow, although we plan on sometime making sure we know how to get to the airport via the public transportation. We're pretty sure, but it'll be good to check before we leave the hostel with our bags and such at 8:30 am on wednesday. I am really excited about going to Germany, I'm sure we'll have a great time. Well I'm off to work on some of those photographs until we head off for lunch and the museum. Keep checking for more photos, they're on their way.

it's march! and spring break!

mystery, originally uploaded by jumu556.

It's been a busy week, hence the lack of updates in a while, but guess what? It's officially March, and it's officially spring break! The sun is shining the grass is green the flowers are blooming... well... ok the sun is shining somwhere behind the overcast clouds. And certainly the grass is green... it always is, this nice olivey yellowy green color, with a few patches beginning to wake up and grow. The flowers... well I've seen several crocuses blooming, at least a dozen or so! And there are gorgeous tulips in all the flower stands, (and I can see the leaves of the tulips poking through the surface in several parks around here, so they should be blooming within a few weeks, and that makes me excicted, I like tulips).

And I'm on break, but still sitting in studio working on things, and will need to until I leave Wednesday. Allison and I are going to visit my friend from camp, Jens, who lives in Dusseldorf, Germany. He's got lots of exciting plans for us, and promised to get us out of the city since we're seeing lots of cities between Prague and Krakow and Prague and Cesky Krumlov and Prague. There are parks here that are beautiful, but that was my main request, that we get out of the city. Allison's was that he not take us anywhere uncool. Apparently we'll be visiting his uncle who lives near lots of castles, (he called it "the castle district" no idea where it is... but sounds awesome.)

Well I need to get back to my work, but I'll try to update at least once before I go, to let you know what kind of amazing places we visit around Prague before we leave. We've decided this is our big chance to be tourists and take tours and photographs and wander to new places, so that's the plan for the next few days, interspersed with some studio work and emailing and such.

I hope you're enjoying this beautiful beginning of March, whether it's cloudy, chilly, and rainy (or snowy?), or sunny, bloomy, and breezy wherever you are!

Chapter 3: things to do around Prague

I've gotten somewhat settled into my routine. I wake up sometime around 8:30 or 9:00, get dressed, spend 20 minutes eating our little breakfast (it takes effort to spread butter and jam!), get my things together and catch the metro or a tram. Then I spend time in studio, often it gets swallowed into the whirlpool of things to do on my laptop, (including updating this!), and things to do to prepare for classes. I'll attend the class or two I have that day, spend some more time on my computer. 3 days of the week I eat in studio from groceries purchased earlier in the week (i.e. - one small PB&J, one small turkey or ham sandwich, a few chips or a cereal bar, water or juice) the other 2 days we'll go out to lunch with people. We'll stay in studio after classes until sometime around dinnertime, (by the way, do you say dinner or supper? I say both, but apparently one is more particularly southern than the other) when people will wander out to find a restaurant, sometimes all together, usually in smaller groups. Sometimes we'll come back to studio afterwards, sometimes not. Sometimes people go out for drinks, particularly later in the week (and I may join if it's not really late and there's not other things to do, and get a fanta and feel somewhat like radar, but man, fantas are good here). And then shower and reading or homework and bed and we start over.

This is not hard-set by any means, but a pretty average day. But today, after listening to people talk about not wanting to waste our time here, and taking advantage of the fact that we're in PRAGUE! I've started thinking about what I want to see of Prague, and considering my time here is limited, where and what and how I'll see and do and be. So I've started working on a list. I started out with the must-see parks on this website's list (our site, Letna park is not on their list by the way... don't worry, it will be, you just wait for this library to get built and see what happens around it and it's going to be right up there after Prague Castle, the Charles Bridge, and Old Town Square). There's a botanical gardens, a franciscan rose garden, and a more natural preserve thingy on the western side of Prague. I continued reading on this touristy site about top places to see, going through some of the churches, and one of them really excited me. At St. Nicholas Cathedral, right on Old Town Square about 3 minutes from our studio, they have concerts every night beginning March 31. It costs about 12.50 for a student ticket bought ahead of time, and what really excites me, being still somewhat of a classical music nerd, is the schedule around Easter, the week that it starts. On Maundy Thursday, it says: a capella choir, Ave verum: O. di Lasso, G.P. Palestrina. On Good Friday it says: chamber orchestra, J. Haydn: 7 Last Words of Our Saviour on the Cross. On Easter Sunday, there will be a choir singing J. Haydn: St. Nicholas Mass (which is of course appropriate being in St. Nicholas Cathedral). And on Easter Monday there will be a vocalist,, a trumpeter, and an organist playing works by Mozart and Handel. (You can learn more about it on the website: http://www.psalterium.cz/en/start_en.php). Did I mention the organ is the one Mozart played when he lived in Prague? So anyway, that kind of excited me, I know it's not going to be the absolute best performance anywhere, I mean, it'll be $12, but it's still pretty cool. I think. If you have any thoughts on which of those concerts I should choose to attend, feel free to put in your two cents. I've only 40 days to decide!

My goal now, is if there's some free time between classes, is to try to wander someplace new at least once during the week and more during the weekend. We'll see how it goes. But the anticipation is half of the excitement of going a new place, and by simply wandering and getting lost I'd never learn or find even half of the cool places that I would like to. Well, I'm off to dinner. It's that end of the routine. I'll be back on tomorrow morning, 9:30ish Prague time. Hope everyone's having a good Mardi Gras!

photo! and thoughts on czech.

cesky krumlov castle, originally uploaded by jumu556.

See I've uploaded a good 6 photos from the Cesky Krumlov (that's chesky for those of you who can't see there's a hacek implied above that c). Speaking of haceks (there should be one above that c in the word hacek too, it means the c is pronounced like the english "ch", while normally a plain c is pronounces like "ts" like the word noc, or night) Anyway, speaking of haceks, our Czech class is going well. It's a complicated language in different ways from how english is complicated. We've learned the nominative and accusative cases, and are currently expanding our verb vocabulary. I still can't actually communicate with anyone who doesn't speak english, except to say, as I learned from Pimsleur's Czech audio course, "Nerozumim."

An older man said something to me in the park, pointing at my camera, and after I responded "nerozumim" he kind of shook his head and said back, "nerozumis" or, "you don't understand." So, technically, I understood that he understood that I don't understand. But I do wish I could've communicated a little better.

I can understand a word every now and then overheard from the conversations in the metro. Like on the escalator, I heard a girl say to the guy she was with (presumably boyfriend) "Znas?" Meaning, "You know??" I have no idea what he knew, but I know it must be an object because you use "znam" when the thing you know is an object and "vim" when the thing you know is a clause. (the example our teacher gave was if you said "I know her boyfriend" you would use znam, but if you said "I know where her boyfriend lives" you would use vim) Sounds fun, doesn't it?

another weekend, another city.

I've returned from another weekend trip - to Cesky Krumlov. It's a little medieval town/city in southern Bohemia that's still very much as it was in the middle ages, tiny cobblestone streets and bears in the moat and all. Well, the bears aren't quite in the moat, more like in a trench that goes in front of the main gate and there are nice little iron fences to keep people from feeding the bears. They looked rather satisfied with their breakfast of bread and fruit placed on a rock near the bridge. Kind of slow and bumbly.

Cesky Krumlov is actually the filming location for that oh so lovely horror movie Hostel. I don't intend to ever watch it, (or really any horror/gore movie at all), but it's still an interesting fact, and it may give you the idea of the windy narrow medieval streets that cars still manage to drive down, most of the time. I'll post a photo or two once I get them up onto flickr.

We were pretty lucky, the weather was cool but beautiful saturday, and given that it's February, it was fairly empty compared to the hordes of tourists that arrive during the summer. The hostel that we stayed in was almost a hobbit-hole, the door was low and stooped and arched, and it had a big carved wooden dragon curled around the door's window.

Part of the beauty of Cesky Krumlov is that the Vltava river winds its way in and out and around the city center and castle, the same river that ends up going through Prague and then later into Germany as the Elbe. The water added a whole different layer of connections between the parts of the city and the rolling mountains that surround it. It reminds you as you walk by a passageway down to the river and hear a burst of the roaring gurgling water, that before ancient beautiful buildings rose around cobblestone streets, the river winds through and flows on. I also learned, walking though there, that it's pretty much useless to try to replicate that city somewhere else. It might look the same, but it wouldn't feel the same; it wouldn't mean the same thing. What makes Cesky Krumlov what it is is the layers of earth water stone bricks iron stucco tiles paint time and the lives of its people, from the first group to the infants being pushed around in strollers over the cobblestone. It's more than just tilty old buildings leaning over narrow cobbles with souvenir shops sticking out every window. Sorry disney, you'll have to try a little harder.

night time in Market Square, Krakow

night time in Market Square, Krakow4, originally uploaded by jumu556.

So I'm back from Poland, it was a lot of fun. Well worth the time and $120 that it cost me.

Friday night, after wandering from the train station with little else but a "gut feeling" of direction (and enough wits to know we should follow the flow of people), we visited a pub called "Middle Earth" down in a basement off of Market Square. We all went in mainly because Allison and I had read about it in our Easyjet booklet on the flight to Prague and figured being able to say "I went to Middle Earth last night" would be cool. I'm not sure I'd have stayed there as long as we did though, it unfortunately reeked of cigarette smoke, as did everything I had worn there for days afterwards.

Saturday, after eating breakfast for two hours in our (very very nice) hostel (while waiting for the rest of our crew to wake up after their late night), we wandered around the square a little, and then Allison and I decided to go to Wieliczka salt mines. More on my prodding because I'd seen a discovery channel show on it and never thought I'd actually get there. It was very touristy, but it's fun to be a tourist every once in a while. Plus it was astounding what amateur working miners had carved into this mine. There were chambers and chambers, each one named after someone, with sculptures and lots of chapels, including one particularly majestic one, I may post a picture of it, but they'll all definitely be up on flickr.

Sunday we (Allison and I) had another long breakfast, with the same company as the day before of a German and a Flemish guy who were also being tourists for the weekend. They were friendly and provided good conversation while waiting for everyone to wake up. We ended up doing our last hour of wandering (before we had to catch our train at 12:30) with them, since they wanted to go see the castle, too. It was really warm, sunday, I didn't need the insulating layer of my coat at all as we were walking around. It seems the cold weather has abandoned us for NC, are we a jinx on cold weather?

The train back to Prague was not direct, as Friday's trip was. We in fact had 3 trains. Number one was a local Polish one (very slow, stopping at every little bit of sidewalk we passed). The next one that crossed over into the Czech republic was nicer and somewhat faster, of the same level as the train we took friday, with individual compartments for 6 people with the little sliding doors. And then a final "high speed" train set up like an airplane, with rows of (first class airplane level) seats and automatic window shades. That one still probably didn't go faster than 45 or 50 mph, but it only stopped twice before arriving in Prague. Allison and I had already been warned by the German guy who had studied in Poland that semester that Polish "high speed" trains seemed even slower than the slow trains in Germany and the Netherlands, so we weren't expecting bullet speed.

So I'm really glad I went, it was better than I think I expected, and really different from Prague. And I got some good nighttime shots of Market Square, as you can see. If anyone's thinking of visiting Krakow anytime soon, let me know and I'll give you the link to Mama's Hostel, it was very nice and clean and friendly, nicer even than where we stay now in Prague. All except for some chunky milk I poured on my corn flakes the first morning. But that can be forgiven, if I exert myself to be generous.

Poland? Poland!

So we're going to Krakow this weekend, train leaves at 2:05 (or 14:05) and it is currently 11:54, so I'll post something when I get back. We've got some ideas of what to see on our 1.5 day trip, but who knows. It's supposed to be lightly snowy and cold, which is the same as here in Prague, so it's not like we'd be escaping any weather one way or the other. Poland's not the first place on my list of top places to visit, but hey, they're going, it'll cost me around $150, maybe a little more, and when will I get another chance? So wish me luck, I'm looking forward to the train ride! (maybe not all 7 hours of it, though).

top of deathly tall soviet escalator

top of deathly tall soviet escalator2, originally uploaded by jumu556.

this thing has a 200 foot difference in elevation from top to bottom. And I get to ride it every day. It's at our stop, Jiriho z Podebrad. (yeer-zhee-oh zpoe-dyeh-brad)

weary lion door knocker

morose lion door knocker, originally uploaded by jumu556.

I felt like posting one of my black and white photos that i just uploaded. This one is a door knocker on the door entering the town hall clock tower on old town square. This building is so old that the clock is astronomical and is based on the principle that the earth is the center of the universe. You can imagine how much this lion has seen pass him by... And maybe surmise why he might have such an expression?

The snow is probably gone from his forehead by today, I took it last Thursday and it's been raining and above freezing all day. Warmer here than in NC, I hear!

the fun of trying new things and being optimistic about food.

On Sunday we didn't do very much but wander out to eat and do some laundry and take naps (and on my part listened to the Vintage21 podcast from a week or so ago). But the adventure (using the word loosely) was in the meals. At lunch, we had our first friendly waiter! He actually made a joke as he was serving us, or kind of more made a silly mistake and laughed at himself. So that was a nice first. (not that I blame people for having a lack of warm & fuzziness and fake american smiles and all that. I completely understand that when you feel like crap, and your only job is waiting tables, putting on a smile to placate tourist customers feels practically hypocritical). But it was nice to have one who was friendly. So I ordered an omelette sandwich, (it was kind of a breakfast-y cafe), and saw it came with mayonnaise on it. Now, I don't like mayo. Never have. But I can handle a little bit and I don't mind scraping off the excess when it's just a little blob under the lettuce. And I had heard the warnings that in Europe they like to pile on mayo. But I was feeling optimistic, and I figured it would be simpler for the waiter and whoever made the sandwich if I didn't modify the order at all. But when I got this sandwich... every single layer had a slab of mayonnaise. And the top one, mixed in with the iceberg lettuce, was about half a jar of it. After scraping as much as I could out of the lettuce, tomato crevices, onions, omelette and bread, from both halves of the sandwich, there was at least 3-4 heaping tablespoons of mayonnaise on my plate. plus all the goop that I couldn't get out and just gave up on. It was a good sandwich, I'd never had an omelette sandwich and it was on their fresh homemade bread, and it was less than $5. I'll probably order it again, but... I think I'll bother to ask for "no mayonnaise, please!!!" I couldn't believe someone would actaully choose to ingest that much blobby oil and fat. Bleah.

new things

So I've been trying to keep track of the new things that I've done here. Besides just "being in Prague," there are a lot of new things I've tried, or have to do daily. Here's the compiled list, so far, in no particular order.

• been (and eaten!) in an Ikea.
• ridden a REALLY REALLY TALL escalator. (you'll probably see a post about that later, someone said it has almost 200 feet vertical difference between the top and bottom. plus it's this old soviet thing so it goes really fast)
• commuted in a foot of snow.
• ordered food on a menu with no english.
• eaten a McDonald's happy meal at Gatwick in England (only 1.99 pounds!), although I haven't visited one of the dozens here
  
• eaten cabbage and sausage soup, and liked it!
• listened to a live jazz concert with flute, xylophone, bass, and drums.
• tried, (but did not like) chocolate chip yogurt... (bleaaaah. it was sour with little bits of chocolate flakes.)
• bought food in a grocery store that has the food lion symbol but is called "Delvita"
• successfully figured out which bottle was clothes detergent and which was fabric softener (a very difficult endeavor, but if you try it, detergent has an icon of a t-shirt with a stain on the back while fabric softener has a feather)
• eaten a stone-fired pizza (very similar to Brixx) and it didn't even cost $5!
• ridden the yellow line subway to the end of the line one way (getting to Ikea)
• communicated with someone who did not speak my language (she said something, i said i didn't understand, she said something else, I heard "five" and i realized we were supposed to tip her if we checked our coats, so I did!)
• watched a movie/commercial being filmed on the steps up to Prague castle
• seen a Little Caesar's pizza for the first time in a long time - inside Tesco!
• washed clothes inside something that we guess is a foot-wash sink? it's rectangular, deep, only a foot off the ground, and has a regular sort of faucet on it. But it worked well for our purposes.
• eaten out every day I've been here, usually at least twice... (that's actually getting a little old, I wouldn't mind simpler things that don't require sitting and waiting and ordering and having to pay over a dollar for water even though I have a bottle in my bag...)
• learned to be able to stand drinking carbonated water, since they seem to often misunderstand me. the Czech brand, Mattoni, isn't so bad.

that's all I can think of for now. I'm going to be posting some snow pictures on flickr later, we were up on top of the clock tower on Old Town Square yesterday for our first studio. The views with the snow everywhere was gorgeous. Might post one here... though fair warning, I won't have access to my computer over the weekend, most likely, because they lock up our studio and only the professors and director have the keys, and they don't want to come to work on the weekend... So I'll be even later on my emails and updates and such.

see? I really am here.

see I am really here., originally uploaded by jumu556.

This will be a quick one just to let everyone know, I'm here, and whole, and haven't had too big a chunk taken out of my wallet by flight delays and overnight stays in London. If you want to see a few more pictures I took on our first walk around Prague (I think it was Sunday), check out my flickr site. It took long enough to get here, but it was worth it.

are you kidding me???

are you kidding me???, originally uploaded by jumu556.

Good bye, NC!!!
I like to think it's a going away present. The day my flight leaves (God willing it will leave) and it snows an inch. First time in like a year and a half. well, blog you from the other side (of the atlantic!)!!

almost there... almost there...

I plan on arriving at RDU in less than 24 hours... that's kind of crazy. I've been good about packing and preparing ahead of time, though, (I mean I had more than a month! and it was sooooo nice...). I've been trying to pre-adjust myself to changing time zones, sort of, by going to bed an hour earlier and getting up an hour (or maybe just 45 minutes...) earlier each morning. So this morning I got up at 6:45. Crazy, huh? I was pretty impressed I could get myself to do it. The planned bedtime tonight is 8:30 but will probably be more like 9:30, which also is crazy. I don't know when I last went to bed before 9. Probably last time I was jet lagged? Anybody who's had a studio with me knows I don't have a liking to pulling all-nighters (and work all sorts of crazy early morning and weekend hours to avoid it), and in the same vein I don't like navigating foreign airports and cities on 2 hours of plane-sleep (equating to a half an hour of real sleep, I believe). So this is my effort at reducing that effect and maaaybe getting some more sleep on the transatlantic portion of the flight. But... I have a window seat, and it'll be so cool looking out on the clouds and the twilight thousands of feet in the air... I think it'll help once it gets dark and the distraction to press forehead to window (and maybe take a photo or two) is gone. Well I should get busy. Less than one more day of packing!!!! (that's almost more exciting than going to Prague... wait, no, it's not. it's just annoying.

T-4.5 days and counting

packing, buying, reading, repacking, cleaning, weighing suitcases, repacking, sleeping... that's me right now. for the record, I am sick and tired of packing and buying and repacking. It's no fun. I will be very happy when it's all over, and I've hopefully not forgotten anything I can't buy there. so, here I go, back to pack.

mluvim česky... except not. at all.

I'm trying to learn at least enough Czech to not be completely and totally lost and ignorant when I get there. I found out there are not very many resources available to teach yourself Czech and none of them are ideal. I decided on the pimsleur audio cd's (only to lesson 16, not the "complete" 30-lesson set (for the exorbitant $150!!). And also a separate grammar book. Pimsleur recommends you don't read or write anything while listening to the lessons. I know myself well enough to know I need to have an image of the word in my mind in order to remember it and pronounce it, even if I have to learn Czech phonics (and why do you consider this so above me, o pimsleur user's guide?).

So, with the help of the grammar book (which assumes I can already read complex dialogue from chapter one but has some helpful charts and vocabulary), as well as several English-Czech online dictionaries and phrasebooks, I've managed to ingrain several useful phrases, and am working on some other vocabulary. The thing is, I've lost some motivation because pimsleur has started doing phrases like "what would you like to drink?" or, "where would you like to eat?". These phrases are too long and complicated to look up on any of the dictionaries or phrase books I've found online, and I can't quite tell how the words are spelled (since I don't know the particular declension or conjugation and I haven't found where to look that up online) so I can't get a good idea of it in my head. And relying on imitating the sounds is not working very well.

Plus, I don't think this phrase is really necessary at all, not in the basic sort of way. Pimsleur hasn't even taught me to count, yet, or to say "my name is..." both of which I think are pretty high up on the "basic necessities" list.

But it certainly has not all been a loss. I've gotten to practice pronunciation, and broadened my vocabulary from nothing at all to at least a dozen or two words. I think the most useful phrase I have learned so far is "Promiňte nerozumím." "I'm sorry, I don't understand."

stones up to the ridgeline

stones up to the ridgeline, originally uploaded by jumu556.

so this is a test to see how blogging some of my flickr photos works. i like this picture more than it probably deserves, so I chose this one. The rocks lined up like that just seemed so random to me, up on top of the ridge. I thought it might be collected from water draining off the slope, but the path is sunk lower than where these rocks are, so it would seem like the water would want to flow down the path and not right there.... so idk. it confuses me. so i took a picture of it.

preparations...

so no, I haven't left yet... still in the ol' durham. But I was bored tonight so I made my blog. Personally, I feel like blogs have the flavor of narcissism and self-absorbtion, two things I try to avoid, at least on the conscious level. Not that I don't write down thoughts when the mood strikes, but that I have never anticipated anyone else would be interested in reading them. So writing this is a litte awkward for me, but I'm sure my normal ranting, digressing mind will kick in and take over quickly enough. This is fair warning: I probably will go on plenty of tangents, but I'll at least attempt to keep my posts within the realm of "keeping family and friends updated on how I'm doing in Prague" as that is the purpose. I'll be busy here for the next two weeks trying to get everything organized and bought and weighed and pondered over how much i actually need it in the first place... as the title says, preparations. but i needed to post something to make my blog look a little less blank.