Berlin et. al.

So, again after failing to update for far to long i shall attempt to put far to much into a post, here we go. The last two weeks here in prague have been pretty relaxed. The routine of going to class, hanging out in the afternoon reading and such then doing fun stuff at night has pretty much continued. The highlight of the last couple of weeks was certainly the trip to berlin last weekend. It was amazing, the city itself was so cool, i got a great vibe from the whole place. We got in on friday, checked into our hostel in west berlin and hopped on the tram east to the brandenburg gate. We then checked out museum island and the german history museum that had exibits focusing on the Nazi era and its aftermath, very well done. Then we wandered for a while, ate bratwurst for dinner and hung out at our hostel for a while. After our group had gotten sufficiently served, we headed out to a german dance club in east berlin. A couple of british dudes tagged along with us and proved to be massive tools. They claimed to be 20 but couldnt have been more than 15 years old and sketchily tried to spit game at the girls we were with. One of them definitely couldnt figure out if he wanted to be british or irish for the night and another attempted to prove his manhood to everyone by doing pullups on the tram, one of those "look at how big of a man I am" things, compensation at his best. The club was exactly wht you would expect, and underground dance club in an abandoned train station. Despite the fact that im probably the last person one would expect to enjoy clubbing (and believe me, i am) i managed to have a good time and make sure everyone got home safe and sound and definitely saw part of the cities life that i wouldnt have checked out on my own. The next day consisted of more museums (including an amazing ancient history one) and an awesome 4 hour walking tour during which we saw tons of Nazi sights, the wall and got a lot of the history of the city. Then we went pub crawling that night and went to bed. I got up early the next morning to go up in the Reichstag dome then came back, roused the crew and hit some art galeries and the Jewish Museum, designed by the same guy who's doing the world trade center memorial, and caught our train back. The city was simply amazing, I could go on for hours (or pages as the case may be) but ill spare you. Its just an amazing place thats constantly growing and changing yet in so many ways defined by its history. Its also got an amazing energy, partially due to the artistic community that moven into the east when the wall came down, but thats already starting to die out as the area become trendy, so check it out soon if you get the chance. Other than that, this week consisted of paper writing, a six page hand written final essay in film class, a trip to a czech suburban swimming pool (which, apparently, considers simply a thong as proper dress) to escape the ninety degree heat and a case of food poisoning. Its a little bit nuts that Ive only got five more days left here, but im looking forward to getting back and seeing friends and family and the like, hope all of you are doing well.

HELLS ANGELS . . . Norway? 

Yes, I'm a lazy bum . . .

But there are reasons, though i admit they may not be good ones. First, my camera broke thus no pictures and i like pictures. i was holding out in hope people might post new ones, i was sadly mistaken. But anyways, the the last week and a half have been pretty solid. Last weekend we went on a trip to southern bohemia. One of our history professors acted as our guide (and our film prof tagged along) to the royal towns of southern bohemia. We stayed in a city which, in its entirely, has been placed on the UNESCO world heritage list, and was definitely worthy of such a distinction with small winding streets and a huge palace on a hill. The town was cool, saw a modern art museum as well (which featured an artists that i actually really liked, go figure) and we headed back to prague on saturday. On the way back we had one of the most interesting experiences of the trip. We stopped to visit a catholic pilgrimage site. Our professor is jewish, but very knowledgeable and unbiased in presenting christian sites, the local priest apparently had a differing opinion. They got into a heated argument, the priest saying he has an exclusive claim to truth with our film prof retorted saying he was sounding a lot like a communist. Possible anti-semitic comments followed and our extremely humble, mind mannered, no more than 140 pound professor came within an ounce of restraint of coming to blows with the priest. Aside from being incredibly amusing with our profs unintentionally funny comments it was really interesting to see this certainly pre-vatican II, seemingly pre-reformation priest in action . . . it made me appreciate more the need for reform in the church and frankly to apologize on behalf of my entire religion to my professor. We got back and then chilled for the rest of the day. The week was fun. 80's night at a dance club called Nebe, made tuesday night most enjoyable as i knew the words to every song save one. Thursday night we went to see Batman Begins (not returns as i had previously mispoken) on an IMAX screen which was pretty friggen awesome . . . i really wish all the other batman movies hadnt be made (and, for the most part, blown) already. Friday we went to the prague castle (more to come later) and that night i went and procured my copy of harry potter and the half blood prince (which was finished today, most enjoyable). Saturday morning the whole group departed for southern moravia. After learning some history and stopping at a few small towns then arrived at our destination for the night. Our prof led a few of us on a hike up a hill on the edge of town with a cool church on the top. The view was awesome, we could see beautiful countryside, the town as well as the austrian border that was merely a mile away. That night we had a wine tasting (during which i ate some lovely cheeses) and had fun with drunk people. The next morning we went through some amazing caves, saw an "abyss" like the one in Garden State and went on a boat ride on an underground river. Then we ate and headed back to Prague, overall i was most impressed with southern moravia. That brings us to another new segment. The "things that are weird in prague" segment turned out to be a bust as the kfc tacos were surprisingly good, so i introduce to you . . .

Historical practices that should be resurrected in the modern era: defenestration.

So, as i mentioned earlier i went to the prague castle on friday and viewed the site of the second defenestration of prague that started the 30 years war. For those of you who are not familiar with this term, it refers to throwing a person out of a window. What could be cooler to do to stupid people? Someone ticks you off, heave them out a window! Debbie and i agreed that the first target of this new policy should be that schmuck in engineering department who doesnt believe in the holocaust, i could think of few things better that tossing him out a one of tech's fourth story windows . . . hopefully onto a pile of rocks.

I hope you are all doing well and please send me an email or skype me if you wanna talk, i miss y'all quite a bit.

The Week In Review

So, Ive been lazy/busy and havent posted in a while, oops, so this'll be a big one. This last week had been a good one. I feel much more comfortable in the city and with the people in the program. Last week was quite eventful. On wednesday our history class took a day trip to an old mining town called Kunta Hora. We wandered the city with our professor, this really cool old Czech guy who chain smokes and wears capri pants, who was an awesome guide. We saw lots of cathedrals (including the "bone cathedral," yes the whole church is covered in human bones) and went down into an old silver mine with this awesome old miner. Pretty solid trip. That night a few of us went up on the hill across the river with bottles of wine (or water in my case) to look out over the city at night. It was awesome, all the major monuments in the city are lit up by spotlights in chronological order (Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque etc.) and had a really fun time. The next night nine of us departed via train to Krakow. The first part of the ride was pretty fun, everyone just hanging out (again) nursing a bottle of wine (i indulged in some excellent eurocandy) and playing middle school games. Then came sleep . . . we were first interrupted by a dude telling us our car wasnt going to Krakow so we had to move. We ended up cramped in a car waiting for like an hour at the Polish border where our passports were checked twice. The rest of the night wasnt much better and we ended up in Krakow around 6 am (on about 90 minutes of sleep) and found a train out to the concentration camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau. It was quite an experience. It was incredibly tough to grasp the barbarism of the camp. Wed be outside on a beautiful day, birds chirping walking through the gas chambers . . . just trying to comprehend that 1.5 million people were killed on that ground took a while. After our tour we all sat on the steps between two gas chambers silent for a bout half and hour then walked back along the tracks, pretty intense to say the least. Three of the people who i was there with were Jewish, two had grandparents in Auschwitz. We left the camps, ate pierogi, then checked into our hostel and went to a pub and hung out for the rest of the night and talked. After a glorious night sleep we went to breakfast and took a golf cart tour of the city and saw the castle where amazing pellet guns with laser sights were procured for about 2 bucks (our hallway has indeed become a war zone, we registered our first casualty yesterday -- ankle, tragic), saw a movie to kill time after everthing closed and rode the train back to prague (during which i introduced the group to hotseat, a wonderful call if i do say so myself). After sleeping for the majority of sunday, five of us went to see the white stripes at this really small club close by. It was awesome, we were about ten feet from the stage at the beginning and they put on a great show. Monday was a day of catching up, on sleep, on talking to friends, family and (of course) a very significant other. Im starting to realize a couple of thing a) how much a miss people from school, courtney, karaba, ryd, the drews, annie and all the young life people b) how much those people know how to have fun as well as meaningful relationships, i am truly blessed. The evening of the fourth we took it upon ourselves to celebrate well, with outdoor beer pong and toasts to the first 19 American presidents. Today just more of the same, i miss you all very much.

."The Christian does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us; just as the roof of a sunhouse does not attract the sun because it is bright, but becomes bright because the Son shines on it."

-C.S. Lewis

Prague Castle at night 

Gas chamber destroyed by the Nazis at Birkenau 

interesting light fixture . . . 

Dudes ready to mine 

Weekend # 1

The first weekend in Prague was full of lots of sightseeing and aimless wandering. On friday (the first day of our consistant three day weekends) Sagar and I went to the Communist Museum (pretty interesting but not all that well done) then went back to the Jerome house to meet up with a group of our TAs to go to a beer garden and hang out for a little while then eat and hang out for the rest of the night. Saturday a group of us went to the Lesser quarter to see a few absolutely gorgeous cathedrals, a very interesting day. So it was sunday morning and I was looking for a church, i searched online and found what was supposed to be an english language service at an old church literally ten feet from my front door. I went but sadly it was a special sunday service that started at ten. I hung around outside till it got out and went inside to speak chat with the pastor. Turns out he was a man who grew up in Albert Lee, Minnesota, and went to the U of M . . . small world . . . who had been in prague for the last fifteen years starting the lutheran church here and was going home for good this coming wednesday. Then i took a post church nap and went on a tour of the Jewish Quarter with one of our history profs. After we got back I got to talk to court for about two hours (thanks to her finding a 3.5 cent per minute calling deal!) which was a real gift. I wont go around gushing, but its hard to be apart . . . really hard. Then i spent the next four hours off and on trying to call my parents, but I kept getting a busy signal. So id call every half hour, then go get a gyro or crepe in between (not a bad deal). I finally got through on my last attempt for the night (the phone had been left slightly off the hook all afternoon) and got to catch up with my folks and annie. Then off to bed and ready to start the week. This morning our history class went on a tour around the prague castle (but not in it sadly) then i did some homework in the afternoontime and took my daily nap. Now I'm going to start my incredibly culturally sensitive new section called ...

THINGS THAT ARE WEIRD IN PRAGUE: KFC

The first oddity of KFC in the Czech Republic is just that: there is KFC in the Czech Republic. Not only does it exist, it is the single most common eatery whithin a mile radius of my dorm (with three, greater than McDonalds two). Not bad, i thought to myself, ill go get some chicken, a biscuit and some mac n' cheese. FALSE. The only sides they have are fries and mashed potatoes. They also serve freakin fried chicken tacos which are basically a gordita with a crispy strip subsitituted for the grade F meat.

and finally the QUOTE OF THE DAY:

"Faith is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted in spite of your changing moods."

-C.S. Lewis

Alter at the St. Nicholas Cathedral of the Lesser Quarter 

Hilltop view of the Lesser Quarter 

My roomate decided to shave his beard one day ... 

Thursday . . . a day without internet

So, I failed to update during the Czech day known as thursday due to the freaking internet in the Jerome House failing for the ENTIRE day, it was sad. On another note i am unhealthily dependant on technology, anyways yesterday was a sleepy day for me. Slept till noon, worked out then took an very enjoyable 90 minute walk around what is known as old town. I found some cool restaurants, an open air market and a bunch of art galleries. Then was my first film class, not sooo good but i think itll get better. Then a bunch of us went to see Mozart's Requiem at an absolutely gorgeous concert hall . . .Though sadly the ensemble was a little bit too small to fill the space, it was still cool. Then i ate a wonderfully authentic meal (fried chicken and fake mashed potatoes at KFC . . . which you find like every two blocks in the city center and serves tacos . . .) and headed home. A bunch of us went out to a pub to hang out for a while, not the most fun for a sober boy but still a decent time. Then i couldnt get to bed so i ended up hearing the morning birds start chirping at four, but i did some good thinking which made it all worthwhile. So, up at nine for breakfast today and out to see some museums close by, so now i will reinstitute the

Quote Of The Day:

"Life by the yard is hard. Life by the inch is a cinch and maybe one day you will become the ruler"

- Mr. Arthur J. Downey, Edina's first and only Varsity Swim coach

Prague: Day Tri

Im finally getting over the jetlag and starting to really enjoy Prague. Yesterday we had orientation, got to know a little bit about the city and some basic language skills and such. Im starting to really get to know the people in my group. There are mostly northwesterner with four guys from UNC, a guy from Bowdoin and a girl who goes to Madison. We went out to lunch with a program TA and then had some free time (aka a nap) in the noontime. I ate some pretty decent Czech fair, they like the dumplings and big pieces of meat (cabbage too, but im not really a fan). The service is ridiculously bad everywhere and thats just expected; people seem angry that you want to buy stuff from them and will try to rip you off. Then our professors took us out to a nice dinner during which the wine was on the house, a little social lubricant for those who chose to indulge and then a bunch of people went out to clubs afterwards and got a lil bit out of hand (aka they all had massive hangovers for 9 am class this morning). I had my first history class today and it was pretty cool, we had an hour lecture then went out to see this place called Vsyehrad where the Czech king ruled for a couple of hundred years (the statue of St. Wenceslas, the Czech patron saint, below was found there). People are starting to get more open too, talking about things other than the booze (i swear, if i hear another conversation about the varieties of absinth i WILL take my own life) and I'm really figuring my way around the city center where our dorm/hostel/hotel is. Theres a big square nearby with lots of stuff to do, tons of places to eat and the like, and i found a gym (shady down like three stories underground, just like dear old patton) close bye. I still have no idea what the street names are, Czech is literally bordering on unpronounceable. For example the Czech word for three in my title phonetically works out to about tchshkee, its a mess. Well anyways its one am and time for bed . . .

Notice: Due to a little thing called time zones, i will be going to sleep, eating breakfast etc. at different times, so if you see an away message such as "afternoon nap" at 8 am, just add 7 for all of you in the central time zone and itll all make sense (Drew and Raj)

Good King Wenceslas