the week in review...

Most definitely my favorite weekend in Prague, and after writing this, realized it was pretty busy. Prepare yourself, highlights from the week:

- I met up with my Czech mom, Martina, and Small Lukas on Wednesday night at a movie theatre to see Vicky Cristina Barcelona and went to a bar afterwards. I really liked the movie; at first I didn’t like the ending because it wasn’t exactly the happiest thing ever, but I realized afterwards that it was much more real and believable, and therefore more appropriate. Martina liked it too, but more because she loves Woody Allen (who directed it) and the male lead. We went to the same bar as last time, and it was funny because Martina “helped” me with my Czech homework at the table and ordered me another beer in the meantime, after I had already called it quits!

- I agonized about class registration on Thursday, before refreshing the page every two seconds around 14:00 and making my final decisions. So for next semester, I’m taking Experimental Psych, Adv. Engineering Psych, American Film Studies, Entrepreneurship, Intro to Skiing/Snowboarding, and I’m going to audit Intermediate Micro Econ. I’m kind of breaking in the idea of “liberal arts” studies. The film class counts towards my communications minor and my arts requirement, and I’ve never taken a film class, so it sounds interesting. I’m going to keep the skiing class (because it sounds like so much fun!) depending on how my ski trip goes this coming weekend. But, I’m actually pretty excited for my classes and especially since I have Fridays and Thursdays off (except one class on Thursday night), but I’m pretty scared because I have a lot of class hours on my calendar right now…

- Went to Kutna Hora on Friday with Caity. For all of you unfamiliar with Czech tourist-y sites, Kutna Hora is this old village about an hour from Prague that is most famous for its bone church. I’ll upload photos soon, but it was insane. They had so many bodies after the plague hit the Czech lands, that someone (I forget who) decided to take bones and make a chandelier and other creepy statues out of them. The chandelier is made up of every bone in the human body. Think about it. Anyway, we wandered around town for a little while after the bone church and ordered the most stereotypical Czech lunch (fried cheese for Caity, and soup and gulas for me) at a restaurant we found. A half liter of beer in this restaurant was 20 czk, which is $1.00 with the new exchange rate! Then we went to go see another famous church which was drop dead gorgeous from the outside, but closed for the day 15 minutes before we got there. Unfortunately as well, the famous silver mines in town were also closed for the weekdays. Wandered around some more in some of the most intense fog that I have ever seen (my hair was wet, like I had just gotten out of the shower, in only a few minutes!), before ducking into a cute café and catching a train back to Prague.

- On Friday evening, a bunch of us went to Lucerna, a well known club in Prague that plays 80s and 90s hits. It was so much fun! Two of Maya’s friends from home are visiting this weekend, so Caity and I went out with them. I still can’t believe I hadn’t been to Lucerna before, the music was hilarious (I’m Walking on Sunshine, Killing Me Softly (that was weird), YMCA, etc.) and it was a good night.

- Watched the sunrise on the Charles Bridge. Except, the sun doesn’t really rise in Prague, it only gets lighter… Probably the most anticlimactic sunrise I have ever seen. But still, I “saw the sunrise on the Charles Bridge.” And we talked to a hilarious, drunk Scottish guy for about a half hour. Anyway, Maya and her friends had convinced me at 5:00 in the morning after Lucerna that the sun would really only be up in two hours, so it seemed like a good idea at the time. It was fun, then, we went to bed at 8:00…

- Saw Don Giovanni in the Estates Theatre. Ohmigosh. It was one of my goals, to see Mozart’s famous Prague opera in the theatre where it was originally performed. I didn’t think it was going to happen because I had searched for tickets earlier in the semester and couldn’t find any shows playing during the semester. But Maya, her friends, Caity, and I all got tickets to a matinee on Saturday afternoon for 200 czk ($12)!! The theatre was gorgeous and the show was great, definitely my favorite Mozart opera. Although, midway through the second act, the lack of sleep started to catch up with me…

- Celebrated Maya’s birthday at a middle eastern food restaurant. Delicious, especially the banana shake thing that I ordered. We sat for awhile and shared desert, but passed on hookah because the service was pretty slow and it was getting late.

- On Sunday, Caity and I traveled to Melnik, a small town about 40 minutes from Prague, to go on a wine tasting. It’s the only place in Bohemia known for its wine. We unfortunately forgot that many things close on Sundays in the Czech Republic, so hardly anything in town was open except around the chateau for tourists. The chateau, the main tourist attraction/where you go wine tasting, was actually pretty empty. Caity and I were the only ones on our tour, and we went down into the wine cellars and sampled ten different wines. It was quite different than what I expected; it was pretty quick and involved a lot more wine that I thought. I learned a bit about wine though, and decided that the pinot and riesling were my favorites, probably because they’re the ones I’m most familiar with. Upon returning to Prague though, I practically collapsed into the bed in our living room and took a deep nap.

- I watched When Harry Met Sally with Caity on Sunday night. Obviously it was something I could have done just as easily at home, but I’ve wanted to see that movies again for quite some time. Plus, Caity had never seen it before! I think we were still pretty chilled out from the wine, and it was a nice, relaxing evening.

- And I finally went to a museum today. On a day-date. With a Czech guy I met on Friday night. It was the National Museum, and he suggested it because I had mentioned taking a Czech history class, and there’s a current exhibition taking place on Czech modern history. I really liked the exhibit and was able to connect a lot of dates and stories that I’ve heard to pictures and full explanations. We wandered around some other areas afterward and then grabbed coffee at a café near Lucerna. More, perhaps, on this later…

I had such an awesome time this weekend, but I’m going to have some serious issues getting all of my final papers done now that I’ve been off enjoying myself instead of doing research. Lots of work to do tonight, but a bunch of things to look forward to this week too!