a gentle reminder

Today: Went to see "Swan Lake" at the Narodni Divadlo. It's now my favorite ballet. No more Nutcracker for me. The dances with the swan ballerinas were the best, with the blue lighting hitting their white tutus. My friends and I sat in the highest seats, but I liked this perspective of the ballet. One can appreciate the dance formations a lot better. Had my internship today after my only class for the day. Prepping for the upcoming conference in Copenhagen. Before the ballet, I had dinner at the gallery cafe at Cafe Lourve. One day, I will go back to the actual Cafe Lourve that has the tall ceilings. It was also a beatiful autumn day, made me wish I didn't have responsibilities, and that I could just roam the streets.

Yesterday: Not as exciting. Had my Eastern European Comparative Politics class and my Germany and East Central Europe history course. These two classes complement each other quite nicely: the comparative politics covers World War One onwards, German history class, from the medieval era. At one point, the material will overlap. I'm (hopefully) going to be well-educated in the histories of the Czech Lands, Germany, Russia, Austria, Hungary, Poland, and other neighboring nations

Sunday: A blustery day. Studied at the Czech Republic's very first Starbucks, and the opening of this Starbucks was like a gateway to more Starbucks in the Czech Republic (there are a total 20 stores) and the rest of Central and Eastern Europe. It was opened last year in January, and it is one of the largest Starbucks I have ever seen. There is a basement with additional seating!! The drinks are a bit overpriced, and what's interesting is they try to keep the cafe feel by serving drinks in mugs to those who are enjoying them in the store. I was reading the recent letter sent to the Obama adminstration by past leaders and officials of Central Eastern European countries for my European-American Relations midterm. We have to prepare a memo as if we are high-ranking staffers in the State Department. After reading the letter, I truly understood how difficult a job the State Department has, as well as the entire United States. Since we are the one world power, many many countries ask us for their support, and therefore shoulder more responsibilty. It's such a difficult job.

In the clouds

The day began at 6:30 this morning to hike up the tallest mountain in the Czech Republic. The mountain, Sněžka, lies on the Czech-Polish border, a three hour ride from the Centrum of Prague. I was a bit wary about the hike up, but despite that and the current soreness throughout my ENTIRE body, I had a great time. An unforgettable experience.

We get to Pec pod Sněžkou, the small town at the base of the mountain, have Bohemian Bagel baguette sandwiches, and embark on our hike. It is important to note that the weather at this time was partly sunny and maybe 40 degrees Fahrenheit, because the weather changed drastically as the day progressed. As we walk closer and closer to the mountain, we are surrounded by nature: a babbling brook, tall tall evergreen trees, as well as trees that were just beginning to turn colors. There are restaurants here and there, and we see many people (mostly older) who had already made their hike up and are enjoying the downhill walk.

At first I thought the chairlift would be like a gandola, with enclosed pods. But no, we get to the station, and I see that the chairlift is like a skilift, with chairs hanging from the cable. I was scared. The chairlift system just celebrated its 60-year-anniversary. But the view from the metal chairs was beautiful. We went passed through a corridor between evergreen trees, and as we got past the treeline, a great part of the Czech lands came into view. The weather starts getting colder, and there was a wintry mix.

We get to the midpoint station (the second portion of the chairlift was closed due to strong winds) and get off to continue hiking up. At this point we were already about 1354meters above sea level. The walk to the top was tough. The inclines are steep and on the mountain there were wide stairs with many rocks jutting out here and there. My friend and I took our time getting up, and I every once in a while, would look back and take in the scenery. Trees everywhere, and a sea of clouds. As we get closer and closer to the top, visibility decreases and the wintry mix becomes icy snow.

It was a great feeling to finally get to the top. It was freezing, we took a celebratory group picture, and explore the peak. Unfortunately, the post office was closed. The post office was built in 2004 and it is completely environmentally friendly. I wanted to send some postcards from there. After visiting the tallest chapel, we start heading down. This first part of descending was difficult; the path was rocky, therefore slippery. And the ice was falling on a slant, and would hit my face really hard. It was so so chilly.

What was really cool was that we were now completely on the Polish side of the mountain. Now I can say I've been to Poland. We also went to a little restaurant in Poland. I paid 20kc (a little more than 1USD) to go to the bathroom, and the lady would collected the money had little piles of different currency. But after being warmed up in the building, going back outside in the cold was hard! My clothese were all wet, and the chilly wind did not help. But was we started to walk down the mountain, it got warmer and warmer.

We hiked the entire way down. All 5620 ft of the descent. Regardless, it was a more peaceful and tranquil walk. Once we got back to the town, we had dinner, and bussed back to Prague. I am so sore now, and know I will be even more sore tomorrow. But it won't beat going to the highest point in Czech Republic and briefly visiting Poland.

a hezký víkend

To remember the day St. Wenceslas, Duke of Bohemia and patron of the Czech state was murdered by his brother in 935, there were no classes today. In the United States, we wouldn't have a day to remember some event that happened in the 1st century. The holiday, however seems to be the equivalent of President's Day in the United States, a day when some stores are closed, some are opened, and school is closed. I thought I could have an entirely free day until my supervisor called to asked me to come in. I spent the beautiful warm afternoon (there aren't many of these days left!) in front of a computer, inputting information into a spreadsheet. Such is the life of an intern.

'Hezký víkend' means 'good weekend' in Czech, and it was a good weekend. The weekend started with semi-crashing a dinner party at a professor's house. My friends who are actually in the professor's class, were invited to his house for pizza and drinks, and also to meet some actual Czech university students. My friend and I, neither of us in MOA, tagged along to see what this was all about. It ended up being a great time: there were Czech students, also students from Kazahkstan, Belarus, etc. A really international crowd. I was looking forward to speaking to some of them, however I still stuck with the American crowd. Still, it was great talking to some Americans who have been in the Czech Republic for a while now, to hear their experiences in Prague, and to soak in all their knowledge of the city. They suggested Monday Trivia night at a hostel, which we are going to try next week. Apparently big money can be won at these trivia nights, good chance for me to get some inflow of cash.

On Friday and Saturday, I went on another school-sponsored trip, this time to Český Krumlov, a little town in southern Czech Republic. According to Wikipedia, C. Krumlov is a city, but it is nothing like New York City, or even Prague. The only city-like characteristic it has is the narrow and crowded streets. Anyways, we were there just in time for their St. Wenceslas celebrations. There was music of all sorts in the square and a medieval-era market. We visited the castle, the tower, as well as the Eggenberg brewery. The castle didn't have a regular moat, but a BEAR moat. Wonder how many bears were in the moat while the Eggenbergs/Schwarzenbergs lived there. The castle also had the oldest operating Baroque theater. From atop the castle tower, one could see the entire city plus the Bohemian coutnryside. We were also really close to the Austrian border, so there were many bus companies providing rides to Salzsberg and Vienna.

The one night at C. Krumlov was a lot of fun. We ate a tavern that specialized in open grilling. It was like Korean BBQ/Hibachi, with the meat being cooked in front of you, in one huge grilling thing. I think it was supposed to replicate the ways people in the 15th century cooked. But it was good stuff. Afterwards, the St. Wenceslas celebration was still going on in the town square, so after a stop at the hostel for warmer clothes, we went out to sit and enjoy the music. The next morning, at the same square there were some folkdancing as well. Wish I could have stayed longer to see and enjoy the rest of the festivities....

Back to being a studentka tomorrow. I have my first Czech language quiz on everything we should have learned during the intensive Czech classes of orientation week. Tomorrow also marks that I have been here for one month. October begins this weekend!

Moravia

The Moravian countryside is one of the most beautiful countrysides I have ever seen. Rolling green hills, tall evergreen trees, fields of corn, and every once in a while, a cluster of houses with orange roofs and their well-tamed gardens. A friend and I noticed that every garden had sunflowers, roses, other flowers, and some sort of vegetation like tomatoes or pumpkins. The road is windy and hilly, and around every bend, there is another stretch of green. This past weekend, I went on an overnight trip (courtesy of NYU!) to Brno, the second largest city in the Czech Republic. On the bus ride from Brno to Telč, my face was on the window, just admiring the landscape outside.

I hope to go back to that area sometime soon. Maybe in 5 years, because that is when the Tugendhat Villa will be restored back to its original pre-WWII condition. The Tugendhat Villa is a house sitting on a hill (in a really swell neighborhood) that was built based on the concept of functionalism. It was the first of houses in the Czech Republic to have a central air system, and one of the tables designed by the arichitect was where the "Velvet Divorce" negotiations took place in 1992. The Villa has great views of Brno, which I like better than Prague. It is less touristy, and has more open spaces. We went to the Moravian Karst to tour the Punkva Caves and see the Macocha Abyss; then spent the night in Brno. We had dinner at this medieval-era restaurant, where our table had a discussion about our different cultures. One of the RAs sat with us, and told us about the generation gap between those who were around during the Communist era (which ended in 1989, mind you) and the new generation. The next day, we went to the Villa, and then finsihed our trip in Telč, which is famous for the chateau and the sixteenth-century buildings.

Anyways, the countryside just reminded me that there still exists a slower-paced lifestyle out there. Even though Prague is not as busy as New York City, Prague is still pretty crowded with people and the buildings. It's nice to escape from it every once in a while. I look forward to next weekend... I'm going on another school sponsored trip (they pay for accommodation, transport, and the main course of dinner) to Český Krumlov.

Balkan music comes to Old Town Square

There was a free concert in Staroměstské náměstí by Goran Bregović and the Svatební a pohřební orchestr (will translate that at some point). Bregović is a Yugoslav musician, from Bosnia and Herzegovina of Serbian and Croatian descent. He is one of the more internationally known modern composers of Balkan music.
It was a GREAT time. Huuuuge crowd of people from all over the place hanging out in Old Town Square, smoking, drinking, and dancing to the Balkan music. In the email sent around to us, they told us it was "REALLY REALLY famous Balkan music" and the crowd definitely proved it. Whenever they started playing, people would cheer and start dancing.

I love Prague.

Dalai, Dali, and Don Giovanni

The architecture in Prague and the rest of the country cannot cease to dazzle me. Today I walked the streets behind the NYU Center, where the National Library is and then crossed the Charles Bridge to get to Malá Strana, or the "Lesser Town." I always have to remind myself to look up because each and every building has a different design. There is usually a house symbol, some pretty red flowers in the windows, a saint or two, a fresco dedicated to some part of Czech history, and much more. I want to take pictures of it all, but it's impossible to capture it all.. there is just too much.

The title refers to my second weekend in the Czech Republic.

On Thursday night, I went to my friends' dormitory in the Vinohrady district of Prague for a potlot. Everyone had some variation on meat and potatoes, so I think we stuck pretty well to Czech, at the very least, European culture. It was good food and good company, and a nice way to rewind after the first week of classes. Afterwards, my friend and I attempted to catch the last tram home, but we weren't able to catch the connecting tram. We were in the rain waiting, hoping that the connecting tram was late. In the end, we decided to take a taxi back. It was my first time taking a cab in Prague and I bargained for the price, which I learned from my friend last week. She called the taxi company before hailing it from the street to ask for the price, and the company price was different from what the price the driver gave. I saved us 50 korunas!

On Friday, many of us attended the Peace, Democracy and Human Rights in Asia Conference held by a non-profit organization named Forum 2000. Forum 2000 is an organization started by the former Czech president, Václav Havel, who was there that day. It was super cool to be in the same room as Václav Havel, and even cooler was to be in the same room as his Holiness, the Dalai Lama. Most of the panel discussion was about how Asia still has problems with democracy and human rights, and they had other speakers like the President of the World Uighur Congress, Burmaese students who have been protesting against the Junta, and European professors who specialized in "Sinology." Most of the talk was bashing China, and there was a news article after the Conference about Chinese officials denouncing the Dalai Lama's visit to the Conference. Of course. I was glad to hear the Taiwanese professor from National Chung Keng University talk about accountability and transparency of government, and not the schpeal that I thought he might give, along the lines of "the icy tension in the Taiwan Strait is thawing...." He alluded to the issues Taiwan is facing, and how important it was to maintain democracy in Taiwan. An intern at People in Need also came up to me because I was one of the few Asians there, and turns out she went to National Taiwan University, and we observed that there weren't many Asians at the Conference. It's nice to have discussions about it in Europe, but it seems as if the Europeans are too detached from our issues.

ANYWAYS, it was an interesting morning. Afterward, (here is where the Dali comes in), a couple of my roomates and I went to Old Town Square to check out the Salvador Dali exhibit. It was a small exhibit, but it was nice to do something artsy. The exhibit had a lot of his "Divine Comedy" work and his sculptures too. Then we went to Bohemia Bagel Restaurant to partake in Burger Weekend. YUM

Then on Saturday, my friends and I went to Kutna Hora, a town one hour east of Prague. We took a really cool train with Harry-Potter-esque compartments from the National Train Station. The Czech countryside looks like Prague, except there is a slower pace and less crowded. We went to the Kostnice Ossuary, also known as the Bone Church. In the 14th and 15th centuries, because of the Plague and the Hussite Wars there was a major surplus of bones, and the Church peoples needed to do something about it. A woodcarver was hired, and he had the macabre idea of assembling the bones in structures placed within the church. Thus, there is a Schwarenberg coat of arms and a chandelier, among other things, in the Church. It was such a sight to take in. What got me was walking up close to one of the skulls and seeing the teeth that were still in place.

We then walked about 3 miles to the Centrum, had lunch in a lovely garden restaurant, and then to St. Barbara Cathedral. From the Cathedral, one can get a great view of the countryside. It was beautiful. The inside of the Cathedral was even more beautiful, and it reminded why I came to Europe, to see these fabulous structures. It was a fun day.

After returning to Prague, I changed in the WC to get ready to see Don Giovanni in the Estates Theater. The opera originally debuted there in the 1750s, and it is still running at the same theater. After seeing both a French opera and an Italian opera, I've decided that I like the Italian better. Perhaps it was because Don Giovanni is a funny opera. They definitely had their own interpretation: the servants breakdanced at the end of the first act, when the opera singers were doing their thing, and at the same time a couple waltzed. Very amusing.

I really still can't believe that I'm here in Europe for another 3 months. And I can't believe I'm here taking class. Class has been relatively less stressful than back in NYC, and I hope it stays that way...

Fifty Bank Note

Since we will be here for more than 3 months, the school suggested that we get a 3month metro pass, requiring us to get a passport photo for the pass. There is a simple Quick-Photo booth in the Mustek metro stop, and so this afternoon there was a long line of NYU in Prague students in prep to get their photos taken. When it was finally my turn, I put 90 Kc in the slot, but the machine only takes exact change. That meant I had to run to the nearest store that would change my large bills, again.

I run to an Albert, which is one of the supermarket chains here. I get in line, use my freshly equipped Czech vocabulary from the morning intensive language class (with the help of some pointing) and ask the cashier if I could have 5 ten crown coins. The woman said no. I then try to go to a Money Exchange booth, but no one was there. I walk out, and an old man approached me. He asked if I needed loose change.

My first reaction was "Who is he? Should I talk to him? How did he know I needed change?" But I needed to get my picture taken as quickly as possible to return to school for my next orientation, so I just exchanged my note for coins and got my picture taken... then there was a long line for the metro pass.. things just do not get easier.

That was very nice of the old man... I'm not sure if he was Czech, but if he was, that disproves what all our supervisors have been saying, that most Czechs are rude.

Today: Intensive Czech Language class, Lunch c/o NYU, Old Town tour, Tesco grocery trip, and finally getting my Metro pass.

Looking forward to the rest of orientation and the tours to come. Really want to do a night walk of the Old Town at some point...