Goat-herding, etc.

The past few days have been "su-per (that's how my Czech teacher pronounces it)."

Thursday was a Czech holiday so a lot of businesses were closed, schools were closed, the city was dead really. We still had classes, though. We convinced our Czech teacher to have a party this day so we arrived with snacks and she arrived with stories. It was awesome. We ate these wafer waffles, lots of cookies, and Zack even brought good ole American candy corn. Everyone brought drinks, too. It was a little weird drinking beer and wine in a language class, but weird is what living in another country is! We spent the entire class learning about the Czech government, stories about movements in the country, and the differences that Lenka noticed between America and the Czech Republic. It was really fun. I was actually pretty bummed out when it was time to end class.

We went drawing in St. Nicholas Church afterwards. My drawing teacher keeps calling me by my roommate's name, Laura. I correct her, but apparently I mumble and she doesn't realize I'm trying to correct her. Anyways, today was the first day that she called my(Iris') drawing "very nice." BOOYAHHHH SUCKAAAAAS. I may be an artist after this. Watch out.

Yesterday, we went on an eco-friendly adventure. The best part of this whole day was getting out of the city. We went to a reeeally tiny town called "Jindřichovice pod smrkem." Yeah, try saying that bad boy four times fast. Anyways, the town is powered by these two windmills. We went to go see them and even got to go into the bottom part of them. It was on the hillside and my god- combined with the fall colors, this place was beeeeautiful! Afterwards, we went to the other side of town (a 5-minute drive) and went to go see a Superadobe, which is a house created by an Iranian architect. He died two years ago, but his daughter continues his work. I tell you this because I heard this story four times. The superadobe sort of looks like an igloo, but its bags of earth coiled around. We saw one in the making and also met the mayor, Petr Pavek!

The mayor looked like a mountain man to me. He was in charge of the construction on this hill. Actually, it looked more like he was the only one doing construction on the hill. The only thing cool about him though was that he lived in a tee-pee. He was boring. I was distracted, once again, by the sweet view.

We adventured around for awhile and I found the perfect gloves for my construction worker outfit. We walked back down the hill and went to a- well, I don't know how best to describe it. It's kind of a like an Amish cottage. It was called the Skanzen and it was precious. Everything was hand-made without modern technology. I've got some good pictures of some of the machines. Upstairs, they had a collection of old items like sleds or bears or books. It was a really great place- unless you had to go to the bathroom. It was an outhouse indoors essentially, with only a candle lighting the room. I felt so hardcore. We ate lunch here. It was handmade vegetarian goulash and it was delicious. They had dumplings and cabbage and soy meat, etc. There was delicious tea as well. I really enjoyed it.

We finished lunch and then traveled an hour to a superadobe house that was completed. Oddly enough, it was owned by a famous Czech actor named Jaroslav Dusek. He wasn't there, but the people that were there were probably a whole heck of a lot cooler. One guy whips out a didgeridoo and starts playing it inside the superadobe. As I mentioned before, this place is practically an igloo so it echoed and homeboy knew his circular breathing. Mr. Frazier, my high school band teacher, would have been proud to know this man. I wanted to start folk-dancing or stepping or something. There was another man with a mean rattail. We had a good time here. A couple people discovered that our bus driver was selling beer for 20 kc (that's about a dollar) so a few people were drinking at this point.

We left this place and stopped at a castle for a hot second. I have no idea why we stopped there because for one thing, it was closed, and another, our two tour guides had no idea why it was significant. We only stayed for 20 minutes before we made our last stop at a Permaculture farm owned by a Czech-American couple. For being farmers, they were extremely well-educated. Their house was in the middle of Srbsko. Never heard of it? Me neither. It was almost tinier than the first town we went to, but their home was beautiful and remodeled. To put it mildly, this couple was loaded and intelligent. They gave us a presentation about food and stuff (literally, it was called "The Science of Stuff"), which was interesting enough. I enjoyed listening to it, but I enjoyed their daughters more. Oh and the tea! It was organic herbal tea. So freaking good.

Actually, let me just say that the entire day seemed involve small children- they were everywhere! One of the professor's granddaughters was with us all day, the other professor's children rode the bus with us, and the mayor's son was about to his us all with a Finding Nemo dodgeball. Well, we ended the day meeting this couple's daughters, who were the only children that could speak English, therefore they were the cutest cause we knew what they were saying.

There were even more animals. There were cows, horses, goats, chickens, a turkey that is too friendly to be used for Thanksgiving, more horses, a cow mounting a horse (I have a picture, don't worry), bees, and yeah- I think that's it. I had a really great time galloping in the fields with goats.

Oh gosh you'll never believe who I ran into at this place! M. GOAT! We took a picture for the friends and family back home.

By the end of the evening, I was exhausted. However, we left the couple's house and saw so many stars. I haven't seen stars in forever because the city is too darn bright. Bryan and I took a romantic walk behind the house to star-gaze. That was the whole day in a nutshell.

I woke up this morning with the intentions of writing a paper all day so that I would feel better about celebrating Halloween tonight, however I got distracted by Becca inviting me to go visit a cemetery nearby. I went with her to find WiFi, but the places we found didn't open for another hour, therefore, I walked with her. The cemetery was beautiful. I know that sounds a bit odd because usually people don't just go walk around cemetery's, but it really was a beautiful place. We decided that we should talk about our futures in the cemetery. It's scary that mine is a semester and a half away, but talking about it around tombstones make me feel better.

We went back to a restaurant with WiFi afterwards, but unfortunately I needed this letter in the password: Á. I know what you're thinking, "Iris you got it in this blog, why couldn't you get it in the password?" Well, cyber friend, I have no freaking idea. It took my almost 25 minutes to figure out how to get an international keyboard on this computer and even though I now have a cool American flag in the corner of my macbook, I still have no idea why I couldn't spell out the word prasátka (pigs). So I gave up trying and came back to the pension.

SO, I procrastinated in posting this and now I have more updates. Saturday night was the mega-Halloween celebration. We went to Radost FX (Rhianna made a music video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yd8jh9QYfEs) and let's just say that I had the exact same experience as Rhianna. It was real fun. We got in fo' free because we were dressed up, too. I was a construction worker. One of the perks of hanging out with design kids is that they can draw me some sweet tattoos. Zack drew a moose on my neck, while James drew a naked lady on my forearm. I didn't take any pictures, unfortunately, but it was professional quality (good thing, too, because it didn't come off for days). The coolest costumes from our group was the blue man group.

The next day and a half was spent working on my Philosophy paper, which I BEASTED. Monday night was movie night this week and it was the best movie we've seen yet. We watched "Lemonade Joe" and it was a spoof of an American Western film. Oh my god. I was dying the entire time because it was so corny and old and perfect. Basically, it was about a guy who was promoting drinking lemonade instead of whiskey. I can't do the movie justice by describing it, but if you ever find yourself in a foreign language film shop and stumble across it, invest in it.

In other news, we went to the Opera Tuesday night. We watched "Rasalka." The only way to summarize it is "Little Mermaid on crack." It was about a mermaid who was trippin' over some prince so she got a witch to turn her human. Homegirl ended up sabotaging the whole relationship herself with good looks and charm (sort of like me all the time), and therefore, Ariel(/Rasalka) was doomed and instead of the happy marriage at the end, everyone dies. That's a bit of an exaggeration, but the prince definitely didn't live. It was really fun, despite the whole show being in Czech. They had English subtitles at the top of the stage, though.

I haven't really done anything cool since then. Mostly applying for internships and real-life jobs... bahhhhhh

Chlupaty Chlab

^ That means "hairy man."

I apologize whole-heartedly for my lack of blogging. I don't even have an excuse for it, so I'll just accept that our relationship has been one-sided and move on.

Here are the highlights from the past week-ish:

I no longer have pneumonia!!! It's going to take awhile to get back into the swing of things. I have been out of the social game for quite some time.

I woke up early on Friday to go on an Architecture Tour around Prague with the Architecture students. It was fun... at least for me, who doesn't look at this stuff every day. By the end of it, I

was cold, hungry, and sleepy, however it was nice to do something different.

Afterwards, I got lunch with Matt and then we went on a hunt for a legit windbreaker for our 80's themed night. It was unsuccessful, but we did find a store called Second Hand, which was conveniently placed to the right of Erotic Shop. So when you weren't really paying attention, it looks like one store called Erotic Shop Second Hand. When we parted ways, I found another good vintage shop that had leopard print gloves. Yes, please. It only cost me $1.

That night, a group of us decided to go to Lucerna, which is an 80's/90's music club. We got dressed up really hardcore. I was wearing my yellow baseball cap, my new leopard print gloves, tights with shorts, and one of Devanne's jackets (because apparently, they are all from the 80s). Heavy makeup and hair-teasing ensued. We got to the club around 10:30-11pm and didn't leave until 2:45am. Yes, it was that good. I kept feeling waves of fatigue, but as soon as your favorite childhood song would end, another would come on and you couldn't resist getting into it. We spent most of the night on the stage, where we got a full view of all the Sketchy Mcsketchersons. We finally headed out and got on the tram towards the pension. However, after a few stops in, this large group of Czechs around my age came on and just started to

vandalize the tram. It was really scary actually. One guy reached over my head to draw on the window above me. I thought he was aiming for my hat. Another guy called me a Hammerhead. I don't know the significance of that, but it could be because I was wearing my hat the only was one should wear a baseball cap.

Well, alas they got off, and a few stops later, so did we. I slept well that night. The next day, I went to Petrin Hill with Matt. This was the first time I've been there since the trees started

changing colors. For all of you southerners back home who are chillin' in 80 degree weather, I am walking to class in 45 degree weather. Think about that. Anyways, we've had some beautifully sunny days recently and this was one of them. We were exploring Petrin Hill when we found ... well, not Petrin Hill. So, we turned around and decided to find the mirror maze that someone told us was at the top. We found it right beside the mini-eiffel tower, but unfortunately, it was really tiny and not as exciting as we expected. However, we didn't pay 50kc for nothing because while we were walking through it, we saw this little 3 year old run straight into a mirror. I mean, head first. And then he fell over. Hahaha.

Okay anyways, later that evening, we met up with Becca M., Bryan Brooks, and Becca H. (that's a lot of B's) for dinner. We decided to explore and ended up near Namesti Miru (the metro stop beside ours). We found an Italian restaurace called Matylda's. It was so good. Everyone was drinking barrel wine, which I don't really know what makes barrel wine good, but I couldn't join in yet due to antibiotics. Afterwards, everyone got their American fix with a McFlurry. We were all pretty exhausted from the adventures from the night before, therefore, we watched a movie in Bryan and Matt's room. We watched Heath Ledger's last movie, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009). Not bad, my friends. It's a little weird and mini-me was an awful awful actor in it, but I did enjoy it.

Let's see, the next day.. Ah yes, the next day I wanted to go exploring alone. I grabbed a baguette from the grocery store and walked to a park nearby. This park was so legit. It had a zip line! This really skinny boy was sitting on it, about to go down, when his overweight friend said something and climbed on top of the skinny boy- now straddling him- and they went down together. I was dying. I had to leave the park after that because I couldn't control myself.

I walked back toward the pension, but kept going further. I haven't ventured this way at all since I've been here. It was really nice. There were a lot of paths and small walkways. I ended up in a different part of town and decided to do a little tram-hopping. I tell you what, if you are ever bored in another country, I recommend tram-hopping. I saw the funniest people. It was nice too because I was getting a little tour of the city in areas I haven't been to yet. I found some great places, but I don't think I could navigate back there again. I wasn't paying attention to

which trams I would catch.

That evening was relatively boring from what I recall.

Monday, I went into school earlier than usual so that I could meet up with the fashion girls to discuss the big fashion show! Haha. This is going to be great, I just know it. The girls are designing clothes and the architecture students are going to be modeling for them. Somehow, I received the role as director. Ladislav, who is quickly becoming my favorite person in Prague, suggested that I make a dress for myself. I admire his optimism, however, I can barely sketch a dress, let alone sew one. Well, we decided that the Romeo and Juliet theme of their project will be depicted through a Gossip Girl genre. This means that I, the narrator, am Gossip Girl.

SUCKAS. Prepare yourself for details.

Philosophy class was kind of fun this afternoon, too. The teacher told me at the beginning that he was lacking sleep, so that might be why he was funnier than he usually is. He asked us if we wanted to go on a Philosophical Scavenger Hunt around Prague after one of our classes (is that even a question?). When we all agreed to this philosophical adventure, he said passively, "well then, if you get lost in a difficult question or a dark neighborhood, you cannot blame me." Well- played, sir, well-played.

Monday night was uneventful. In Czech class on Tuesday, man oh man did I learn how to say something good.

Byl tak oskly va, ze bych o neho kolo neoprela.

That means "he was so ugly that I would not lean my bike against him." It's going to be handy, I just know it. After class, I went to the Jewish Museum. It was awesome. There were drawings all over the walls made by Jewish children in the ghettoes. It was the way that the Jews kept the kids occupied and optimistic during the Holocaust. In one building, there were engravings of all the Jewish people from Prague who perished. We also went to the cemetery. The Jews were only allotted this small area in the city to bury their people, so they would pile dirt above other graves. Therefore, there are approximately 12 layers of a whole chunk of Jews. The tombstones are all leaning against each other.

On the way back, Matt and I picked up a bottle of wine each in preparation for anti-antibiotic night and movie night. The movie we watched was about Czech pilots who fought for Britain during WWII. It was a lot like Pearl Harbor and the best movie I've seen during movie night yet. After movie night, we stuck around the institute until it closed and then headed out to a bar called "Los v Oslu," but we just called it the Moose bar because there is a giant moose head inside. It was the first time we went there as a group and it was pretty fun. It closed around 1am, so we spent one more hour at Puerto Rico, our beloved bar close to the pension, before we called it a night.

This morning, I went to the Prague Castle with the Fashion History class. We go to a museum every other week. We went to a museum near the castle. I didn't ever check which it was, but it was everything Baroque. We saw Baroque Fashion (appropriately) in the basement, then Baroque paintings and statues. We followed a path into a cellar with Baroque artifacts that were brand new. That didn't come out right. We found a brand new exhibit with Baroque artifacts. That was a pretty sweet find.

When we left the museum, we went around the castle courtyard and ended up taking a different route back to the institute. It was so beautiful and Ladislav was narrating the whole time about how it used to look before Communism lifted and what certain doors were used for (ie, one door led directly to the King's room and he used for his secret affairs). We walked through the vineyards, back across the river, and right into Old Town Square. It was gorgeous today, too. I took awesome pictures and promise to post them ASAP.

Well that's the abbreviated version of the weekend/week/past. This weekend will include an excursion and bob-sleighing perhaps, so stay tuned kids!

Holiday of Spice and Cheeses, Sleep and Movies

You know, blog, I was very pessimistic about this weekend. However, it really hasn't been that bad.

The Friday that everyone left was spent mostly sleeping. I either slept or watched movies all day and didn't get up until about 5pm. Stephanie, the one other person who didn't go on the trip with everyone else, and I went out dinner at a really cute Italian place down the road. We originally attempted to hit up Ordinary World, but they were booked for the second night in a row. Whatever, I'm over it.

After dinner, we went back to the pension and gossiped for a little while, but then I went right back to watching movies before bed again. I watched "Requiem For a Dream." Holy freaking crap. Don't ever watch that movie before bed. ever. It was an absolutely amazing film, but the entire last 10 minutes I spent cringing.

I obviously couldn't go to bed afterwards, so instead I skyped friends from home. I miss you friends. I went back to my room and watched a Czech movie before I fell asleep. It was actually a movie about an Irish man and a Czech girl who make music together. It was called "Once." I really enjoyed it- a lot more than I usually enjoy films. I fell asleep to the soundtrack that night.

The next morning, I woke up with the promise of Bobsleighing with some friends through the NYU program. Unfortunately, rain was in the future, so we postponed the adventure. Stephanie and I were so disappointed because movies and sleep are only tolerable for so long. Alas, when I found out I didn't have plans for the day, I climbed back into bed and watched more movies. I saw another Czech film but it was really bad. Then, I watched "Amelie." I really love that movie. So much that I might watch it again after I finish this blog.

I decided to check my facebook after that movie and I had a message from one of the NYU friends. They were all heading over to this place called Pivovarsky Dum. Basically, it's a restaurant with flavored beer that they brew themselves. It's one of those restaurants that all the travel books recommend. Stephanie and I met up with 6 NYU friends. I knew 3 of them through the Cesky Krum-Krum trip. The food was sub-par and I couldn't fully enjoy the beer due to the wonderful world of antibiotics, but I did try a little. Flavored beer is bizarre. The company was superb, though. Afterwards, we invited them to our favorite bar- Puerto Rico.

We ended up splitting up with a few of the group and adding another person and there ya go! It was amazing to be out with people when I had been lounging the whole weekend, but it was also nice to be back out at Puerto Rico. I was feeling a whole heck of a lot better. I didn't stay out too late though, and I was in bed by 1am.

The next morning, I woke up and really wanted the maids to clean my room. They way it works is that you turn your key in every day and they make your bed and sometimes vacuum. So, I took my computer, turned in my key, and hung out in the lounge for about 2 hours as I uploaded my photos from the past month. I worked on homework as I did this too. I was really excited to go back to a clean room, but unfortunately they only made my bed today. They didn't even change the sheets. womp womp.

Stephanie and I decided to go explore a little since we were both getting stir-crazy and it was surprisingly sunny outside. We went out to lunch near Old Town Square. On our way, however, we discovered the Holidays of Spices and Cheeses. Haha, they celebrate silly things here. Anyways, there was a festival set up in Old Town Square. It was precious. Ironically, though, we did not see any spices or cheese. We ate our lunch (even though it was already 4pm) and then walked around a bit. We enjoyed some Trdlo (dough dipped in sugar and then grilled to perfection) and then meandered around a bit. It was cold outside (low 40s) so we stopped in a Starbucks and hung out there until we were warm again. Actually, we ended up spending almost 2 hours there just chatting. We didn't actually buy anything, but it was nice to smell Starbucks. It smells like home.

We ended up back at the pension and I decided to try to upload the rest of my pictures. Of course it's taking an hour to upload 10 photos.

Oh I forgot to mention a really exciting part of my day. When Stephanie and I returned back to the pension, my favorite old man was at the reception desk. I don't know his name but I call him Grandpa. Stephanie asked for her number first and before I could say my room number, he gave me my key! He knew my room number! Which means he knew me!! This man was so grumpy the first few weeks and when he gave me my key, he said "dva-cet pet" the same way I say it. It was really cute.

Between Grandpa and Anna the cleaning lady, I feel right at home. Anyways, tomorrow shouldn't be particularly exciting, but everyone gets back tomorrow night. I'm looking forward to that.

Creepy Crematorium

Chci byt zdrava.

That means I want to be healthy in Czech. I learned it yesterday when I found out that I have Pneumonia. This is not a fun adventure. The doctor told Maria that I am under strict orders not to go to Berlin this weekend with everyone else. Therefore, I will be sufficiently bored and I’m pretty sure the weather isn’t supposed to be as beautiful as it has been this week.

After what seems like forever, the sun finally broke through and I realized how grateful I am to be here again. After class on Tuesday, I had to run some errands, but ended up getting distracted by the river. On my way to the river, I saw a man performing saxophone in Old Town Square rather enthusiastically. I stopped and enjoyed for a little bit. When I gave him some change in my pocket, he called me hesky (I love when Czech class pays off) and he thrusted a handful of postcards in my hand. I thanked him, only took one, and went on my way.

I sat beside the river for a while. I wanted to go to Petrin Hill really badly, but knew how much walking that would take from me and couldn’t muster the energy with this sickness.

Which brings me to the doctor experience. I was given directions to the place and Maria set up an appointment for me around 7pm. So, after Philosophy, I began my journey. I’m glad I wasn’t deathbed sick because finding this place would have been a nightmare. I had to take the metro line all the way to the end, then take the tram four stops further. Once I get off there, I have to walk about three blocks away from the main road and navigate using only a map provided. Luckily, I was a girl scout for 2 years in elementary school and navigated that map like I’ve never navigated a map before, but the walk wore me out (most physical activity does). Not only that, but it was getting dark and I was in an unfamiliar part of the city. I must have had a worried face when I walked into the lobby of the center because the receptionist looked at me and before I had a chance to tell her why I was there she opens her arms and says, “I know. Here- take a seat and I will make you a cup of water.” She has been the nicest Czech person I’ve met yet.

The doctor was a tall timid creature and when he asked for my health background and details of my illness, he would type loudly while I responded. I was surprised he could hear me over the typing actually. He listened to my lungs for almost 5 minutes. I listed about 6 symptoms, and he gave me 6 remedies. He had to type out a guide for me that described when I took each. He also asked that I come back for an x-ray the following morning. All of this seemed really excessive to me at the time, but now that I’m taking the medicine, I am thankful for all of it.

The x-ray the next morning was kind of a ridiculous experience, too. Most of my education of Eastern Europe comes from the Holocaust courses I’ve taken. So, I hate to admit it, but I think about the Holocaust a lot while I’m here. Therefore, when I walked into a room filled with old numbered doors that had vents at the top and bottom of them, I was convinced that I was standing in a crematorium.

When my name was called, I went into “Dva, prosim (that means two, please).” I opened the door to find another door in front of me and a chair to the right. I didn’t know what I was supposed to do, so I just stood there waiting. A woman opened the door after a few minutes and looked surprised at me. She said, “undress.” Pardon?! Undress? That’s it- I am definitely getting burned today. That’s the only thing I could think of. I awkwardly took off my dress and then waited for further instruction. She said, “no, bra too please.” Thank goodness I wore leggings with my dress that day, but I am now topless in a creepy old crematorium. She then proceeded to grab my shoulders and direct me to the x-ray machine. It was then that she noticed I was wearing a necklace. She pointed to it and then pointed to her mouth. I couldn’t help myself from blurting out, “YOU WANT ME TO SWALLOW MY NECKLACE?” She said “no, hold it in your mouth.” Haha, I wish you could have seen the horror in my face. I actually had myself convinced that the doctor ordered me to get an x-ray because he found out I have Jew blood and wanted to trick me into the crematorium.

Alas, I got x-rayed then shooed back to change. The woman didn’t close the door, though, and two men walked into the room I was just in for some reason. I am still topless and really uncomfortable now, so I scurry for my clothes and put them on with rapid speed. I went back into the waiting room and looked around at the people there differently. I wondered if they knew they were about to strip down for a nurse.

I got the x-rays back and I assume they write a memo that tells you what the results mean, but I couldn’t read it because it was in Czech. I went back downstairs and gave my x-ray to the receptionist (it wasn’t the same woman from last night unfortunately. I got pretty attached to her.) She had me talk to the pediatrician and as soon as I met him, I wished that he had been the one I originally saw. He was the sweetest old Czech man I have ever laid eyes on. He kept giggling, too. Actually, that might be a little discerning considering he was explaining that I had Pneumonia.

Well, that’s that. I have been sick for a while now so I wasn’t planning on staying in bed this whole time. I hate the feeling when you’re lying in bed thinking about what’s outside your window. Typically, Raleigh is outside my window. Or Reisterstown is outside my window. But right now, PRAGUE is outside my window. How the hell do you stay indoors when Prague is outside your window? However, when I tried to go to class today, Maria yelled at me to go home.

Curse you, pneumonia. But, I am now in bed. I spent the afternoon sleeping and now that it’s bedtime, I can’t fall back asleep. I have a lot of work for classes now so hopefully that will keep me busy in the meantime.

Spunky Scotland

I can't think of a clever way to begin this blog because the only thing that comes to mind when I think about this weekend is a huge content smile. 

So I'll just begin. We left around 3pm on Thursday and took public transportation to the airport. I know I mentioned this in the Paris blog, but taking public transportation to the airport is really exciting to me for some reason. I always feel so freaking accomplished. We got to the airport and hopped onto the plane. The passengers on the plane right before us were very Scottish and very proud of their soccer team (who just so happened to be playing the Czech team in Prague this weekend). Before we knew it, we were in Scotland. That's code for "I slept the whole way." I didn't realize that Scotland was an hour behind Prague. I was really freaking confused as to why the airplane man kept saying we were arriving at 7:20 when my watch said it was past 8. Good thing, though because the bus we were catching to Dundee was scheduled for 8:10.

ERR, WRONG. It wasn't a good thing because let me tell you all about this bus ordeal. We got into Scotland a little later than anticipated and Jenny, Laura, and I booked it through customs, etc. I didn't know the way to the bus station but when I googled it a week ago, it didn't look too far. So, let me put this into perspective. It is now 7:40pm. We are starving, tired, and we all really have to pee. However, the bus leaves at 8:10pm and we don't know where to go to get it. I meander over to a precious old Scottish man who was holding his wife's bag and asked him where St. Andrew's Square Bus Station was. He said, "Oh dear, that's in the center of Edinburgh. You'll have to take the shuttle bus in." My eyes got big and scary. I asked how long it would take. He thought for a dramatic minute and said, "Well, I reckon it would take about 30 minutes, maybe a little more."

Panic sets in.

I start rallying the troops and getting into go-mode, but when I asked the bus lady how we get there, she told us that the bus left every 20 minutes and one had just left. Crap. We were definitely going to miss the Megabus we booked. Here is the big problem: I didn't have Robert's phone number or address and he was the one picking us up when we got to Dundee (I'll revisit this later). Therefore, if we either a. didn't arrive or b. arrived late, he would have no idea and/or we would die. Death is a little drastic, but that's how I felt. 

We found an internet kiosk and ended up finding another bus that left specifically from the "Edinburgh Airport" at 8:45pm. Conveniently enough, it arrived in Dundee only 5 minutes after we were originally supposed to get there. It was the last bus of the evening, so we booked it and then went to go find the stop. I asked bus lady again and she informed us that we would have to take yet another shuttle to Ferry Toll Park and Ride and then switch onto the Megabus. Ferry Toll was 30 minutes away and alas, the shuttle came every 30 minutes. We ran down to the stop with the schedule.

AND OF COURSE WE MISSED IT ALREADY BY 5 FREAKING MINUTES. We had to make this bus, though. Missing it was not an option. We gushed to a really cute Scottish couple about it for approximately 1.3 minutes and they told us that worst-case scenario, we could take the train. Good to know. But instead, we hailed a taxi and told her to step on it. 

And stepping on it, she did. We got the Ferry Toll at 8:44pm, 1 minute before the bus was supposed to pick us up. Laura flings herself out of the car and shouts to the men that work there, "DID THE MEGABUS COME YET?!" They shake their heads slowly to say "no." The older man said, "The Megabus doesn't come until 9:15 sweetheart." ARE YOU F#@$%#^$ KIDDING ME?! 

I still don't really know where we messed up, but I believe that the bus lady told us the wrong thing because we didn't have to go to Ferry Toll. Ferry Toll was the stop after Edinburgh Airport. Well, we blew about 20 quid (isn't that cultured of me to say?) on a taxi, but at least we were where we needed to be. I was so relieved that at one point, when I was standing next to the old man that helped us at the bus station, I had the overwhelming urge to hug him. I refrained, though. 

The bus ride was uneventful and Robert rolled up just as we did. It was so nice to see a familiar face after that stressful evening. I hugged Robert for as long as he would let me. I guess I should mention that I know Robert from camp. He worked with me for two years. His roommate drove us all back to their house and when we got there, I realized how hungry I was. I had one proper meal that day around 11:30am, so Robert got us some menus for "Let's Wak" and I ate Chinese food for the first time abroad. While we ate, I recapped the bus adventure to Robert and sarcastically said at one point, "thank goodness we had your number and address cause that was real handy." Robert took that opportunity to show me the facebook message he sent me, where he did, indeed, give me his number and address. Haha oops. My bad. We kept talking about how we should go out, but I was still feeling sick and couldn't muster the energy to do much. 

So, we crashed on Robert's couches. I got an awful night's sleep because I couldn't breathe. I was basically wheezing and coughing all night. The next morning, Robert gave us a little tour of the University of Dundee. It was drizzling and freezing outside, but that didn't stop us. Well, maybe it did. We went to the union and got a tea. After drying there for a little bit, we walked down to the pharmacy and I got some "Chesty Cough" medicine. Then, we went to a pub close by and we got a beer. Afterwards, we went to get lunch. Jenny and Robert had traditional Scottish Haggis (which I believe is some animal's bladder, etc), while I had a hummus wrap... finally :-) I've been looking everywhere for hummus. Laura had Jenny's leftovers. I kept thinking that we were going to be late for our bus back to Edinburgh, but then I realized that I forgot to change my watch back. Silly Iris.

We stopped at a store so that Laura could buy a more significant jacket that would keep her warm and so Robert could buy a sweatband to go with his jew fro. He was dressing up as a Jewish Camper for a BUNAC conference. We concluded that the final outcome of the costume looked like Cheeseball. We stopped back at Robert's house, met a few more roommates (because he lives with like 13 people or something ridiculous), watched a really cheesy car show, then Euan drove us back to the bus station. I was thinking about how I felt bad I didn't get a chance to see Julie, one of my counselors who actually lives in Dundee, and as I was thinking this, BAM! There's Julie! She's standing at the bus station, waiting to catch one to Glasgow. What are the freaking odds? We chatted for a hot second, but then we had to catch our bus. 

I slept most of the way to Edinburgh, but at one point, I woke up to the police kicking a guy off the bus. We have no idea why, but I am assuming it's because he may have been drunk. When we got to Dundee, we walked to the Scott Monument to wait for Robert. The conference he was going to was on Saturday in London, therefore, he was taking a train from Edinburgh. So, he booked a train from Dundee to Edinburgh the same time we were on the bus and we arrived within 30 minutes of each other. Robert showed us where the hostel we were staying at was (he recommended it to us) and then went off to his own. This hostel was 1000x better than the hostel in Paris. Paris was literally just a metal bunkbed in a room. No decorations or nothin'. Castle Rock Hostel, however, was friendly and organized and cute and comfy. I was gushing over it because I was secretly dreading staying at another hostel. We stayed in a Latin-themed room. My bed was named "bottomus bunkus." Each person got their own locker and safe in the room. The beds were comfy, there were curtains, and there was even a carpet! I was over-the-moon. 

We freshened up, then met up with Robert for dinner. The "football" game of Czech vs. Scotland was going on tonight so we hit up a bar that was showing it. We ordered our food and beer, then enjoyed the atmosphere. It was nice to be in an english-speaking country for a little bit. After we ate, Robert and Laura ordered another beer, we switched tables to spread out a little, and then played a mean game of Counting Shoulders. This has to have been the most successful rounds I've ever played. Counting Shoulders is basically where you count all the way up to 21, each time hitting your shoulder in the direction you want the counting to go. Every time you make it to 21, you make a new rule for any number. We were screaming really inappropriate British slang (courtesy of Robert) at each other before the night was over. However, we didn't stay out too late because Robert had to get up early the next morning and I was feeling like crap again. 

The next day, we woke up and went back to the Scott Monument to meet up with RaJa (one of the counselors in my unit this past summer) and her friend, Will. It was so great seeing her. We went around her campus at Edinburgh a little bit. We stopped to get tea at one point in a really cute shop. There weren't any tables large enough for us left, but there were only 4 people at an 8-person table, so they made room for us. People in Scotland are so much friendlier to strangers than in Prague. After tea, we went to the National Museum of Scotland. I saw Dolly, the cloned sheep! She was dead and stuffed, but it was cool anyways. There was a wing that was entirely interactive. We were having so much fun in there. You could see how quick your mind reacted by pushing all these buttons that lit up, and we set off a rocket by winding it up really quickly. When I say "we," I actually mean Will because he was the strongest one. We walked around the duller parts for a strained 10 minutes and then headed up to the Terrace overlooking the city. B.E.A. UTIFUL! We could see Arthur's seat from where we were standing, which is a huge mountain you can hike up beside the city, and I wish I could have been healthier because it looked like something straight out of Pride and Prejudice. Bummer. 

After the museum, we went to lunch at a library bar on Edinburgh's campus. This was the cheapest meal all weekend. RaJa shared with us that it sounds funny when we say "spunky" because "spunk" is "cum" in Scottish terms. Oops. After this meal, we parted ways. BOOOO. It was really fun playing with her though.

We went back to the hostel and ended up falling asleep for an hour. Around 6pm, Ailsa and Marlies (two counselors, again, from camp) were picking us up from our hostel and taking us back to Ailsa's flat. When we got to Ailsa's, she made us dinner! We had veggie lasagna, salad, and bread. Dangg it was so good. After dinner, we sat around with her four other flat-mates and they immediately began making elaborate cocktails for themselves. I have never seen anything like this in my life. I guess us Americans don't drink very classy because they asked what we wanted and all I could think of was vodka and soda or beer. Don't worry, though. Marlies made me a "Marlies Surprise." Laura was downing their whisky because no one drinks it in the flat. 

I forgot to mention that the whole time we are drinking cocktails, we are also watching The X-Factor. It was so silly- mostly because I have never seen Ailsa sing on the top of her lungs before. Once everyone was good and drunk, we went to one of Marlies' friend's flat party. It was so British of me to do. We were a little awkward at first, you know- those 3 Americans- but after awhile, a group of guys started socializing with us. We had a great time. Laura kept getting hit on by a creepy mustached man. Jenny kept being trapped in a corner. Meanwhile, Ailsa was still singing, Marlies was bebopping everywhere, and I was watching this all go down. It was fun. 

Ailsa and Marlies wanted to go to a bar, so we left around 12:30 and went to this place that we would consider classy, but when I mentioned that I thought it was, Ailsa and Marlies looked disgusted. They said it was a sloppy establishment haha. We didn't stay for long because I was feeling sick again (once again, the sickness prevails). It was another rough night of sleep. I thought at one point that I accidently coughed my lung out of place. 

The next day was departure day. Traveling ended up taking the entire day and everything went smoothly. It was so nice to see friends while I'm abroad. I feel so content now. I haven't looked at my photos yet from this past weekend, but I have roughly 200 photos to post online. I'll post them on facebook sometime this week, I pinky promise.

And Mom and Dad, I'm going to the doctor's today after my Philosophy class so do not fret. 

Also, as I was typing this, Anna- the cleaning lady- brought me tea. But not just tea. She also brought me a croissant with jelly and honey on it. I didn't even ask for it! It was so sweet! The best part, though, was that I was sitting right next to Jacob and she didn't even acknowledge him hahaha. 

Good Cheese

I just slept a total of 18 hours.

This is not a drill. I am sick, therefore this week has been rather dull. The only cool update I have for you is the interaction I have with the cleaning lady who knows minimal english.

See, at first, I thought she was mocking me. I know as much Czech as she knows English. I was walking into the institute one time with a cup of tea in one hand and my books in the other. She held the door open for me, while speaking to the gallery owner beside our institute. I heard the word "caj," which means tea, and the word "anglicky," which means english. So I was a little bitter- like my tea. hehe.

However, you can always add a little "cukr" (that means sugar) to a cup of tea! The next time I saw her she said something that I could not understand, so I asked her to repeat it like 4 times until finally I realized she was saying "Good Afternoon!" How sweet! I responded with "dobry vecer" (which is good evening, but evening is the closest I've got to afternoon). As I was sitting here, reflecting on our friendship, she comes around the corner and offers me a slice of her cheese. I didn't know exactly what she was asking so I just said yes (which in hindsight it's probably not the smartest reflex to have) and then she sliced me this huge chunk of cheese. The only thing I could understand about this cheese is that it was "perfecto." I took a bite and said "dobry syr," which means good cheese. She giggled and said "good cheese" very slowly. Then she said "sh-sh-shop-shopping billa." I translated this as I could buy it at the Billa Grocery Store.

I would like to add to this that she noticed I was coughing, so she just made me Ginger Lemon and Honey tea...from scratch! I watched her cut everything up! She was speaking quick Czech, but from her hand motions, I'm assuming that the ginger will help clear my chest (I was coughing a lot).

So, while all the architecture students are upstairs bonding with Maria, our go-to person for everything, I am downstairs eating cheese and drinking tea with Anna, our cleaning lady. SUCKERS.

Paris!

Where did the pirate go to spend all of his booty? pARRRRRRis.

This weekend has been quite a doozy, I tell you what. We left Thursday night and for some reason, we ended up waiting for 2 extra hours than what was necessary for our flight. I bebopped over to the airport via public transportation and I gotta tell you- it made me feel pretty freaking independent. The flight was shorter than I expected. When we got closer to Paris, there was a thin layer of clouds over the lights. Let’s just say that this may have been the most beautiful thing I saw since I left Prague. I was listening to Sigur Ros, too, which made the whole moment epic.

When we got off of the plane, I was convinced that Nina had no idea what she was doing. However, I found out later that she actually spent 3 months in Paris when she was 18 and she told me she felt she know Paris better than Prague even though she was raised in Prague. We took a van to our hostel and by the time we got there, it was around midnight.

I signed up separately from the group since I wasn’t in the fashion program and therefore, I was placed into a different room from the others. The receptionist informed me that there was a mistake and a dude was in the room that I was supposed to be in. However, he offered to switch me into a room that was all girls. I figured better safe than sorry. He gave me a new room and when I walked in, I was welcomed by the sweet, sour aroma of men. Out of six beds, four were occupied by dudes and two were empty. But, alas, the fifth roommate stumbles in drunk while I’m staring at my unfortunate situation and invites me to get a drink with him. What the?! I haven’t even mentioned the fact that the toilet overflowed all over the floor. I left the room to find someone I knew so that I could try to make a joke out of the whole situation. Instead, I ran into the receptionist. I told him that it was a room full of guys and he looked confused. He told me that sometimes when the guy’s rooms are all full, they pretend to be girls in order to have a place to stay. So, he switched me to another room. As he unlocked the door, he woke up the two people staying in this four-person bedroom. There was a girl on top, but there was a guy on the bottom of the bunk bed. The receptionist said, “what are you doing here?” The guy responded by clearing his throat, making his voice higher and saying “excuse me?” I admired the fact that he tried to pretend to be a girl, so I told the receptionist that it wasn’t a big deal and I stayed there the first night.

The morning started around 8:30 with a buffet breakfast. The food offered was a baguette, instant coffee, and butter/jam. The first stop that morning was to get to a fashion exhibition called Atmospheres. Nina, the teacher who came with us, had free invitations to it, but the invitations were written out to specific names and it wasn’t ours. Therefore, I became Lindsey Milem. They gave me an i.d. card that I had to wear around my neck the whole time. It also said that we were buyers at the bottom, even though I could by no means afford anything at this show. I felt the need to inform every person who struck up conversation that I was just a student, but even then I was sort of lying because I’m not in the fashion program. So far this semester, I have pretended to be an architecture student and a fashion student. I still like being a media major though.

The first show we went to was exciting, but I felt like I was going to faint the whole time. It may have been the fact that it was about 90 degrees inside or due to the fact that I was coming on with a cold, but either way, I had to go outside. I felt nauseous, so I got a soda and took a breather.

Everyone followed not long after and we walked around Paris a bit. We walked into Jimmy Choo’s and the Chanel store just to say that we went into them, but they didn’t appreciate our presence there. Next, we went to the accessories exhibition. I think I have found my calling. I was in the zone. I ended up making a lot of friends at this show, too. I met an Australian man who cuts diamonds for a living. We bonded over our awful French language skills. I also met a man who made candle cases from South Carolina. We bonded over football. There was one guy there who made all this jewelry completely out of sunglass lenses. Yes, please.

Pictures weren’t allowed, but I snuck one of the whole room because it was beautiful. Man, I am a rebel. Afterward this experience, I ditched the Lindsey persona. We went to see Paris from some sweet views. We went to a gallery that had the most expensive shops, but the most priceless view of Paris. (Aw, that was cute.) We decided to get lunch here in the cafeteria and the food was freaking exquisite. We went our separate ways from Nina and went to the Eiffel Tower.

Getting to the Eiffel Tower was quite the adventure. We had 10 metro tickets, but about four of mine had de-sensitized so I was truly struggling with getting through the gates. The metro lines, however, were a whole heck of a lot more complicated than Prague’s. Prague has three. Meanwhile, Paris has about 14. I beasted that metro system, though.

Once we got to the Tower, it started to rain. Of course. I brought my cheap umbrella from Cesky Krumlov and it promptly broke the second I opened it. Never fear, however, because I invested in an umbrella hat. I know that 2 Euros may seem like a bit of splurge for a hat, but considering that I didn’t spend money on anything else except for food, I considered it acceptable. We ended up getting distracted by breakdancers. I admire their efforts in dancing on slippery stone, but they weren’t very nice. Some of the girls on our trip really wanted them to dance to Lil’ Wayne, however when we asked them if they would, the ring leader informed me that he doesn’t like Lil Wayne’s work. Psh.

We jumped back on the metro and stopped by the Arc de Triumph. What a freakin’ detailed piece of work. I stared until a sketchy woman approached me and asked for money. Our next stop was the Louvre. We ended up getting in for free because students were allowed in after six on Fridays. Cha-ching. We decided to take the route that would lead us to the Mona Lisa. I can’t even express how much I enjoyed myself there. I was definitely overcome with joy from all the animated statues and sleeping Asians.

When we got through the Louvre, we ended up getting split up and just met back up at the Hostel. However, Laura and I stopped at a café first to get something to eat. When we got back, my head was throbbing so hard that I couldn’t even think about going out. I went into my new room at the hostel, complete with an Asian, an Indian, and an old French woman. I had a dream after the first night that we were all hand-in-hand inside of a snow globe singing international songs. I could write a lengthy paragraph about living with these people for two nights, but I don’t want to think about it anymore. Instead, I’ll just hint that I enjoyed sleeping with the guy that pretended to be a girl more.

I woke up the next morning and found my camera screen broken. I was devastated. Thus, the second half of my photos are really rough. We started our day by walking to Notre Dame. I really enjoyed our stroll through Paris. We crossed the river and saw the more expensive areas of Paris. When we got there, it hit me that I should probably keep my eye out for Esmeralda and a hunchback. I found both. In other news, the building was intense. I wish my camera were in better shape so that I could get pictures that did it justice. I actually witnessed a baptism there. Pretty darn fancy.

It took everyone forever to get out of there. So in the meantime, I bonded with Nina. She informed me that there is a town right next to Prague called Maslovice where there is a Maslo Museum(aka a butter-making museum). When I looked on the map for it, I found that it is just a hop, skip, and jump through Praha to get there. Perhaps a day trip?

When we got everyone together again, we took a different route back to the Louvre in order to go to a history of fashion museum. It was a lot cooler than I expected it to be. They had runway videos from different designers from over the years. I’m talking all the way back into the 40’s. You could put on the headphones and listen to the music in the video, too. After this, I promised Laura I would go to Jim Morrison’s grave.

It was another journey for the books. We had to switch lines like 5 times, but we got there! The sun just started to peek out, too. Getting around the cemetery itself was a journey. We finally found it. There were a few other people around, but it wasn’t crowded at all. Laura got pretty emotional about it.

Also, can we please discuss the fact that people were putting their shit on top of other graves. I felt really bad for the dead people around Jim Morrison because they were being abused and neglected. I gave them a little attention and then we went on our way…

This one dude passed us and I heard him say, “If your mother was still alive, she’d really enjoy this cemetery.” Man, what a line. Smooth talker. Laura and I grabbed lunch at a stand, enjoyed it in a park, then headed back to the hostel. On our way back, we thought we were witnessing a parade, but we found out later from the receptionist that it was actually a strike. We were clapping along regardless.

After recouping for a bit, we ended up going to the Monoprix, which is essentially a Target. It had everything. We got our dinner from here and then went back to the hostel with it. Laura opened herself a bottle of wine but at this point, my body was on full-scale flu mode. We meandered to the Eiffel Tower again and I’m glad we did because it was a lot better at night.

The whole area was poppin’. People were dancing and glowing in the dark. We went down to get closer to it. Right as I was taking a picture, the whole thing started to sparkle. It was magical. Especially with the Native American flutist beside us playing “My Heart Will Go On.” I started to make out with the men around me. Just kidding.

I think that the other girls went out to a Latin bar, but the cover charge was 20 euros! Oh hell no. So, I decided to save some money and therefore, this was the last thing we did before we headed back.

The next morning I saw Ashley Ohnona (one of my campers from three years ago)! Gah, it was amazing, for one thing, to see someone I know in Paris, but also to catch up. We had breakfast at a café and ended up staying there for about 2 and a half hours. The waiter was a hoot. Homeboy was saying the funniest things- I wouldn’t have known this if it wasn’t for Ashley.

And that’s it! I met up with everyone else from my program by the bus station, we hopped on the plane, flew back to the city of cheap shit, and then metro-ed our way back.

Overall, it was a beautiful place and an extravagant city. I wish that I could have shared it with my favorite people in Raleigh. Ya’ll would have thrived here. I’m still sick and my camera is still broken, but it is in the works. Oy vey.