No means Yes

Aw man, I wrote a blog for the past two days and unfortunately, the post got erased before I could publish it. Bummmski.

Therefore, I will give you the watered down versions of the stories. I guess I should preface the blog with, the more boring or short the blog is, the more fun I am having here. I am finding it difficult to stop what I'm doing during the day in order to blog about it.

However, I still want to share it with you. This day has been wonderful. Wait- I didn't tell you about yesterday.

So, yesterday I went around with a girl named Jenny. We had a great time wandering and getting lost. To sum up our adventures, we went to the top of Prague, saw an incredible view of the city, and then came back down for lunch. We attempted to ride the daytime Tram for the first time and it was awesome. At first, I admit, I didn't understand why one would take the tram because 1. it takes longer and 2. it's confusing. However, after riding around it successfully, I couldn't help myself from wanting to hop off at every stop to go visit something cool. The stop where we had to switch trams, we found ourselves next to a memorial for those who suffered due to communism. It was an amazing structure. We perused a couple shops and then went back to the Pension.

Once we got back, a couple of us went out to dinner with Art again- this time to a place that featured Gypsy music. This was the best dinner I had yet- and not for it's food. The wine was DELICIOUSSSSS. I had Frankova wine and then something that started with "Modry-." The modry one was better. But, most of all, I had the best company. Everyone there was great and we talked for 4 hours! I didn't realize we spent so much time there. Afterwards, we wanted to stay out so we stopped by the pension to get the others and then went to a bar called Puerto Rico. The bar had a great atmosphere, great drinks (best. mojito. ever.) but it was very crowded- especially when everyone finally arrived. I spent the night bonding with only a few people in order to avoid all that "where am I going to sit?"-stress. But, I'm glad I did because I found out that Matt, one of the guys, really wanted to go to the Jewish Quarter. I was so excited because I thought that no one else would want to go with me. So we made a playdate for the next day.

Around 11:45am, Matt woke Laura and I up. Hahah. Oops. We got ready and Laura, Jenny, Matt, and I headed to the Jewish Quarter. Well, I didn't think about how it was Shabbat- or Yom Kippur for that matter (woops, forgot to fast), and therefore, the quarter wasn't accepting visitors. Buzzkill. We walked around for a bit until we noticed a giant red metronome in the distance. We gandered that way and found 200+ steps to climb. But, alas, we made it to the top only to discover a plaque describing it in Czech that we couldn't understand. So, we turned around and found this awesome park. It was huge and someone told us that it was the largest park in Prague. Isn't that cool? Yes, it is. We found a cute swing and played on it. There was graffiti that said "Fuck Albania." I don't know why Albania should be fucked, but I took a picture of it anyways.

Which reminds me of a funny issue I am having. "Ano" means "Yes" in Czech. But you shorten it to just "no." So, "No" means "Yes" here.  (hehe)

We continued on our journey to discover more views of the city, more weddings, and more statues. Oh! Get this. We were walking around aimlessly until we turned the corner and found a grassy knoll with hawks! and owls! and a giant golden eagle! Of course I took pictures and I held one for a "contribution" of $5. So worth it. That was the highlight of my day! They were on leashes and had a little parch to stand on and a bowl of food. So random, but really awesome.

Laura was starving so we stopped at the first cafe that we found, but it was very overpriced. It was nowhere as expensive as TGI Fridays, but still. We found the metro afterwards and went back to Prague 10. But when we got there, we decided to enjoy the wine festival there. (I don't think it was actually the wine festival because the wine was only at one booth and it wasn't poppin' but, we didn't know what else to call it.) There was weird music, food booths, and of course- alcohol. There was a little shopping, too, but we didn't bother with that. Mostly, we people-watched and drank. There were these blond 5-year-old twins that were a hot mess beside us, but we didn't mind because foreign children are easier to forgive than American children.

I went back to the pension with the others and then took a trip to Alberts, another grocery store. This one was better than Billa because it was cheaper and had more food. It took me about 10 minutes to realize that vegetables are only offered at markets- not grocery stores. Laura and I share a very tiny fridge, so I might have to go shopping closer to the institute and then store everything there. Jacob and I share a fridge to ourselves in the lobby since the studios get their own fridge. I got a few groceries for only $12 (including $1 beers) and then made a sandwich back at the Pension. I felt awkward and out of place for a hot second, but then a group of people came up to the lobby and invited me to go back to the wine festival with them (again, not actually the wine festival.) I tagged along and somehow we got a pretty large group to meet us there. Six of us shared 3 bottles of wine- so 3 cups each, and then moved on to beer. Meanwhile, we also enjoyed a traditional Czech desert called "Trdelik." It's basically barbequed dough dipped in cinnamon sugar and almonds. After a little while, we noticed a group of very drunk people in front of us dancing (dancing is a loose term). They were having so much fun so Matt, Becca, and I joined them. Well, we tried to at least. One group was too drunk to notice us near them, but the other group linked arms with us and we ended up singing the song with them. We asked them what the words meant and the drunkest man replied, "it's about a man who dies and goes up." We said, "up where?" He said, "To heaven!" A few minutes passed and he said, "now we sing about horses." It was silly. We swayed to the music and then did a jig to the other songs. Basically, that was the best part of the night. When the band finished, not only were we grateful because the music taste here is very different, but we drank some more. We noticed one man that was particularly drunk. He couldn't stand up. He would get up and then we would watch him fall like an incomplete football pass. You should have heard us. We went, "OH...oh oh oh oh... OOOOOOOOH"

We walked back to the Pension not long after homeboy didn't walk at all and then we ran into a group from Sweden who were staying at the Pension for a week. Apparently the other half of our group went out with the other half of their group. We bonded for a bit, got more beer, bonded some more and ALAS, I am here.

Things won't be this mellow for long, especially when classes start, but I am really enjoying this city. I could live here forever. It's beautiful and friendly and cheap and ... amazing. I feel as if I am getting more comfortable with the people I'm with, too. It took a bit for me to feel less intimidated by the group since they already know each other but now it's not bad. It reminds me of when a two-weeker comes after the first two weeks of a session.

I started to feel the first pangs of being homesick, but it wasn't bad. There's one girl here that was crying on the first day of being away. I booked a flight and a hostel to Paris in two weeks. The fashion students from my program are going so I asked Dana, the director, if I could tag along and she told me I would be in charge of the flight and hostel cost, but they've got the rest. I get to go to a fashion show in Paris- not bad, huh?

The weekend after that, Oct. 7-10, I want to go to the UK but I haven't figured out plans yet. If you are over there and want to shack me up, let me know :-)

I will add photos to this post eventually. It's hard to because the internet is weak sauce here and I don't want to spend my days in Prague uploading pictures. When in doubt, check the facebook albums.