Class Trips in Prague

      This week was fairly uneventful for me and therefore blew by largely because I'm starting to create a routine of gym class eat sleep. The routine is making me feel more comfortable which is good, but bad because things are starting to speed up and feel normal. I realized this week that almost everything I've acclimatized to has had less to do with me being in a new country than living in a city. I realized I've never really lived in a city, and though I always thought of myself as a city girl, I've never really had the full city experience. I've never lived in an apartment, never had hordes of people always around me, never taken public transportation to everything, and never had so many options of things to do. I really love city life, it's so fast and exciting. The only thing I dislike about city life is all the tourists. I find myself grumbling and glaring at loud American students on the trams, and speeding past Asian tour groups snapping pictures on Wenceslas Square. After these daily occurrences I realize that I am also an American student, and feel pretty depressed about that fact. Each time I see a loud group of drunk Americans I vow to never stoop to that level, and try my hardest to be as local as I can. Along with my love of city life, I have also always considered myself to be crunchy granola (outdoorsy), so it worried me a bit that I would miss the more wild side of Colorado and Iowa life. However, most of the people I've met here seem to have a love of the outdoors too. The great thing about Prague is that it's so easy to get out of the city. A lot of Czechs enjoy both downhill and crosscountry skiing, and the number of people I've seen walking around with skis definitely outnumbers how many I see in the suburbs of Denver. I have started missing the mountains some, but I signed up for a Czech Table with Pavel to Karlstejn Castle where we'll get some good hiking in!
      On Thursday afternoon our history class was cancelled because our Professor had a conference he had to attend. He invited us to sit in on the portion of the conference he was involved in instead of going to class. I had no idea what the panel he was speaking on would be, but it sounded like the topic was about Czech history and the whole event took place at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building which would be fun to see. I sat down with a headset blaring patchy English translation into my ears. After a quick scan of the program I found that the event was a celebration of the Czech and Slovak split and relationship. There were three Czech speakers and two Slovak speakers who all spoke for about fifteen minutes each on their own experiences as politicians. The portion that I sat in on was about the European Union. Though most of what the speakers said went right over my head, I learned some overarching information about the two countries. For example, I found it interesting that the relationship between the Czech Republic and Slovakia has been largely friendly throughout history. I recently learned in my history class that the Czech Republic and Slovakia did not really ever share a history together before they joined into one state after WWI. While the Czech Republic was fairly industrialized and urbanized, Slovakia was still largely agricultural and rural. Therefore, after WWI the two came together in one unified country so that the Czech Republic could protect Slovakia from Hungary who had lost the Czechoslovakian territory after WWI. The panel members stated that the Czech Republic was let into the EU before Slovakia. I learned that even today the Czech Republic fought for Slovakia to be let into the EU and NATO. Though I felt ignorant and uninformed for much of the conference, there were some interesting snippets that I understood, and it was cool to see my professer moderate a conversation between politicians. I even got to meet the American Ambassador afterwards.
      On Friday morning my film class headed to Barrandov Studios. Barradov studios is the Hollywood of Eastern Europe according to my Czech Buddy. It is the biggest film studio in all of Central Europe, and one of the biggest studios in all of Europe. It has an interesting history too: Germany expanded the studios significantly during WWII to use it for propaganda, though they never actually filmed. We got a behind the scenes tour that the studio usually only gives to producers which was amazing! We saw a few different studios where sets were being built for different movies and shows. In one of the largest studio spaces a set for the Czech equivalent of American Idol was being built. We also ventured through the snow out to a huge set of a Roman town that was used to film the show Borgia. Some other famous flicks filmed at Barradov include Narnia, Brothers Grimm, Amadeus, Les Mis (the original), Bourne, and Casino Royale (and all the Czech films I watched at home with you Mom and Dad!). I left the studio with a deep desire to watch some of the movies and shows that were filmed at Barrandov and a need to seriously rethink film school.

Here I am in the set of a Roman City for Borgia:

                                           Here I am in the room of Renaissance Costumes:

      On Sunday I went to my first Czech Table. The Czech Tables are organized by the Czech Buddies to visit places they like that we might not see otherwise. This particular one was organized by Roza who took Jeanette and I to a tea house on Wenceslas Square. I sipped on some delicious tea, ate some dried fruit, and had a great time getting to know Roza.
      By popular demand (from my parents) I'll end this post with some pictures of my apartment!

My desk and closet

My bed

The living room right outside my bedroom

Our kitchen

And just for kicks here's a picture of my 40 kc ($2) dinner at the Three Pigs down the way from my apartment:

Garlic Soup!

      Tomorrow I'm going to Lidice with the Central European Studies group. Hitler blamed this town for the assassination of the Reichsprotektor of Moravia and Bohemia, Heydrich. After arresting some 30,000 innocents, he turned his wrath on Lidice, killing all men over 16 on the spot and sending the rest of the population to concentration camps before razing the town. It should be an emotional day. To top it off I'm tagging along with the Jewish Studies for trip to Terezin on Sunday. Terezin was the concentration camp Goebbels and the Nazis used to make propaganda films illustrating how well the Jews were treated. The weekend will be emotionally draining, but an amazing experience that I'm excited to have. I'll blog all about the trips next week.

Na zdraví!

Patty