I started swimming last week with the Bohemians and it has been quite an experience. I’m quickly learning that in Prague it is better to approach things without any expectations. The Bohemians have morning practice Monday through Friday from 5:50 till 7:15 at a small pool in the Vinohrady neighborhood. To get there on time I have to catch the tram by my apartment at 5:17 in the morning. I initially had been a little scared to be walking around at that hour of the morning because I had imagined I would be the only one up then. However, that’s not the case because there are normally a couple women who seem to be on their way to work with me. It’s interesting to see the city at that time in the morning because you see how Prague, despite the beauty and overflow of tourists in the center, really is a working city. I get to the tram stop by the pool around 5:35, walk up two streets, and I’m at there. It would be a very easy commute, if it weren’t that early. After several minutes of waiting we are finally let in. The boys and girls locker rooms are on separate sides of the pool. Once in the locker room everyone takes off their shoes at the entrance and leaves them in a cubby hole. I’ve notice that Czech culture is very against wearing shoes inside. For instance, when I asked the coach about what to wear to their dry land session, he told me I didn’t need to bring athletic shoes because they wear socks in the gym. In the locker room there are several different colored cages big enough to fit 10 people that line the sides. At first I was confused what to do, but then I found out that each group has their own “cage” or locker that is locked while they are out swimming.
After changing we go out on the deck to a small 25 meter five lane pool. The pool is made of tile and looks like it was built in the 1920s and probably hasn’t been renovated since. The starting blocks actually look like the ones from the 1936 Olympics. My first surprise on deck was that there were no lane lines in the pool. A girl told me that once the younger group got in they would put them in. Not exactly….the other group puts a floaty lane rope down the middle of the pool to separate it in two halves for the older and younger swimmers. We got in the pool and our two lanes proceeded to swim in a reverse circle style, like we do at Kenyon, but without any lane line separating the two lanes. Most of the morning practices are a series of long distance swim mixed in with pulling and kicking. They don’t use a pace clock in the morning, but everyone keeps a quick pace.
Even though I haven’t gone to a ton of practices yet, the team has been very accepting of me. I went to an afternoon practice at the other pool, the Podoli, on Friday and after a long and painful distance practice they invited me to join them next Wednesday for an hour of “fitness” in the gym before practice, and then afterward they want me to go with them to the co-ed sauna and beers. This definitely would not be a team sponsored event back at Kenyon, but of course I’ll check it out.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Overnight trip to Northern Bohemia
On Wednesday I received an email informing me that since not enough people had signed up to go on an over night trip to Northern Bohemia, I would be able to go because I had signed up for the wait list. When I went and talked to the person organizing the trip, she said that there were five spaces available. Because of this, my friends Justine and Kelly were able to come on it with me.
We had to meet at the Namesti Miru at 8:30 on Saturday, but on that didn’t mean I was completely ready to give up a Friday night in Prague. September in Prague is Burcuk, or young wine, season. I’m not sure exactly how it’s made, apparently its not fermented, tastes great, and is highly alcoholic. So obviously the boys in our apartment wanted to throw a burck party for everyone. They went to the wine story around the corner and came back with 16 two leader plastic bottles filled with an opaque, yellow, pulpy liquid. After I finished packing I went upstairs to the boys apartment to find the majority of them had, for some reason, all decided to dress up like pirates. Their costumes were complete with eyeliner mustaches, head wraps, and lots of pirate grunts. When the burck was opened it didn’t smell too good (faintly like rotten eggs) and tasted like a strong carbonated fruit juice. The amusing part came after we had all suffered through a couple of cups and for some reason didn’t feel remotely buzzed. We all were wondering how this stuff worked. Then are RAs came in and tasted, and as we waited for their approval they both made faces and quickly told us we had not tried burck, but poorly made hard cider. Ultimate failure.
Justine, Kelly, and I all made it to the meeting spot next morning and then it was off in a big red bus to Northern Bohemia. I slept the first part but when I was awake I realized that we were driving through small towns, lots of quaint farms; reminding me a lot of the area surrounding Kenyon. The next part of our drive was a climb through the mountains. Finally around lunch time we arrived at the Harrachov Glass factory and brewery that has been producing glass and crystal there from the 18th century. Though I have seen my brother blow glass before, this was on a much different scale. Their glass studio is in a large warehouse and there are two elevated platforms that have all of the furnaces. About 20 glass blowers stand around each one all wearing blue t-shirts, shorts, Birkenstocks or barefoot, and drinking beer out of the wine glass right next to their station. None of them wore protective glasses or seemed to possess any concern that their work might be dangerous.
While we were there they were making crystal wine glasses. It was interesting to see how they created a glassblowing assembly line to produce these. From Tim I’ve learned that when blowing glass you have to rely heavily on an assistant, but it didn’t occur to me that you could turn this art form into such a commercial assembly line. They also had a cutting room where they showed us how the cut crystal was made. About four men sit in a large room at a wheel of spinning rock of different sizes, depending on what size cut they want to do. It seems like very tedious and precise work, because in one 8 hour shift they normally only get through 7 pieces.
After the tour we had lunch in the brewery and had a chance to walk though their glass museum (which also randomly housed the Northern Bohemia ski museum) and check out their glass store. I was surprised at how inexpensive everything there was. From what I’ve heard bohemian crystal is highly regarded, but everything there was well within my price range. Even though I thought some of the things they were selling were very nice, I opted not to get anything because I have no desire to try and bring a lot of delicate glass home on an airplane.
After most people were shopped out we hopped back on the bus and drove up to the based of the Jested tower. I guess I hadn’t read the trip description closely enough, but I had pictured a medieval look out tour in the woods. I was very wrong. The Jested tour is actually a space age pointed looking building/hotel/restaurant that sits on the top of one of the highest mountains in the Czech republic, which still is not that high. We took a funicular up to the top and had amazing views of the surrounding valleys from all angles. After walking around for a while, taking pictures and getting a much needed coffee we headed down the funicular once again and headed to the town of Liberec where we would be spending the night.
Liberec is one of the largest towns in Northern Bohemia and has around 90,000 residents. Ages ago it used to be a big textile center and there are still reminants of those factories. We arrived at the Hotel Praha which was a large art nuevo type hotel that looks out onto their square. The town center reminded me of a more peaceful Old Town Square without any tourists….imagine that. We rode the most amazing elevator (it was one of those cage like ones that you have to open two sets of doors yourself) up to our room, which was on the corner and looked out on a fabulous view. Oddly though when you looked into the square there were around 10 tanks. My first thought was that we had been invaded again!! I quickly realized they would not have brought a rock climbing wall and balloons, and it must have just been a recruiting thing.
We explored around the city a little before dinner and found a really overtly communist wall decoration. Then NYU paid for one of the best dinners I have had while I’ve been here. The woman leading the trip told us that the restaurant was a chain and that there were a couple of them in Prague, but everything was 100 kc more there. Before leaving the city I hadn’t realized how much more expensive it is there. In Prague for a cup of coffee I normally pay between 65 or 85 kc, but there you couldn’t find coffee above 50 kc.
NYU provided us with some ideas for places to go that night, but for some reason or another nothing really seemed to work out and we found ourselves just wandering the city looking for anything that would entertain us. I randomly came across what looked like a bar and had sheet music for wallpaper and thought we should check it out. To get to the bar you had to go down an unstable spiral staircase which opened up to a big lounge with couches, tables, and a juke box playing old American music. We were excited because it seemed to be filled with people our age just kind of hanging out and enjoying themselves. Almost as soon as we sat down a group of guys who we had seen while walking around stumbled down the stairs. They soon switched from just listing to the jukebox to singing loud Czech karaoke and doing a dance that everyone the bar seemed to know. I’m confident they were also trying to impress us because every now and then they would walk by or table, grab my hand and begin to use it as a microphone. This was all good for a while. They were so rowdy that we were curious how old they were, and when Justine tired to ask them they pulled up 16 fingers. After that we didn’t stick around much longer.
After breakfast the next day we had more free time to explore the city. Our goal was the botanical gardens (there wasn’t much actually going in Liberec), but we never actually got there. Some how we stumbled up on the Northern Bohemia Museum and decided this was as good as any a site to visit. Like most things in Liberec, the museum and all the people that worked there were all Czech, and spoke no English. That of course didn’t stop docent from trying to show and explain to us photos of the 1968 invasion after the Prague Spring. I’m not sure if she kept going because we were nodding at her and she thought we understood, or just liked us but she kept speaking to us in Czech for 20 minutes. The photo exhibit was really interesting, but I think what I actually liked the most were the displays containing keys and locks from the 17th century. I’ve never been overly enthusiastic about that sort of thing, but these were remarkable. The part of the key that unlocks it didn’t look like anything i had ever seen, some of them were in spirals and the handle of the keys were normally as big as your fist and intricately carved. We headed back after that and took a more residential route. I enjoyed just seeing the houses which were all much bigger that what I’ve seen in Prague and had huge lawns with fresh laundry hanging.
After a quick coffee we got back on the bus and headed through the countryside to Kost Castle. It was built in a very strategic location on a tall rock formation and it almost seems to rise out of the forest. I was surprised when we got there because all of a sudden this castle just appeared in front of us. Also, before our tour of the castle we had some time to kill so we went into the museum of fairytale creatures. It was like going to a zoo filled with old scary looking Harry Potter characters, but still super funny. I’m still not entirely sure of the history of the castle, but it was built for aristocratic family and has both gothic and baroque architecture in it. The insides which are very nicely decorated and they had a room filled with armor and weapons. We had to wear slippers that they provided over our shoes so that we didn’t damage the original floors.
After touring the castle we climbed back into the bus and drove back into Prague. Even though it was a short excursion we still were exhausted by the time we got back.
Also, on Sunday we went to the Prague Zoo which is actually rated the 7th best in the world, even over the one San Diego. One of the more “Czech” things about the zoo was right after you paid for your ticket there was a beer stand giving away free beer, but you had to pay for a map. People in Europe must have a different philosophy towards their pets because you see dogs EVERYWHERE. You see them in restaurants, on the tram, in grocery stores, and even in the zoo. Aside from the dogs seeing the animals was also fun. By far my favorites were the giraffes, but I also kind of felt bad for them because none of the animals had enough space.
We had to meet at the Namesti Miru at 8:30 on Saturday, but on that didn’t mean I was completely ready to give up a Friday night in Prague. September in Prague is Burcuk, or young wine, season. I’m not sure exactly how it’s made, apparently its not fermented, tastes great, and is highly alcoholic. So obviously the boys in our apartment wanted to throw a burck party for everyone. They went to the wine story around the corner and came back with 16 two leader plastic bottles filled with an opaque, yellow, pulpy liquid. After I finished packing I went upstairs to the boys apartment to find the majority of them had, for some reason, all decided to dress up like pirates. Their costumes were complete with eyeliner mustaches, head wraps, and lots of pirate grunts. When the burck was opened it didn’t smell too good (faintly like rotten eggs) and tasted like a strong carbonated fruit juice. The amusing part came after we had all suffered through a couple of cups and for some reason didn’t feel remotely buzzed. We all were wondering how this stuff worked. Then are RAs came in and tasted, and as we waited for their approval they both made faces and quickly told us we had not tried burck, but poorly made hard cider. Ultimate failure.
Justine, Kelly, and I all made it to the meeting spot next morning and then it was off in a big red bus to Northern Bohemia. I slept the first part but when I was awake I realized that we were driving through small towns, lots of quaint farms; reminding me a lot of the area surrounding Kenyon. The next part of our drive was a climb through the mountains. Finally around lunch time we arrived at the Harrachov Glass factory and brewery that has been producing glass and crystal there from the 18th century. Though I have seen my brother blow glass before, this was on a much different scale. Their glass studio is in a large warehouse and there are two elevated platforms that have all of the furnaces. About 20 glass blowers stand around each one all wearing blue t-shirts, shorts, Birkenstocks or barefoot, and drinking beer out of the wine glass right next to their station. None of them wore protective glasses or seemed to possess any concern that their work might be dangerous.
While we were there they were making crystal wine glasses. It was interesting to see how they created a glassblowing assembly line to produce these. From Tim I’ve learned that when blowing glass you have to rely heavily on an assistant, but it didn’t occur to me that you could turn this art form into such a commercial assembly line. They also had a cutting room where they showed us how the cut crystal was made. About four men sit in a large room at a wheel of spinning rock of different sizes, depending on what size cut they want to do. It seems like very tedious and precise work, because in one 8 hour shift they normally only get through 7 pieces.
After the tour we had lunch in the brewery and had a chance to walk though their glass museum (which also randomly housed the Northern Bohemia ski museum) and check out their glass store. I was surprised at how inexpensive everything there was. From what I’ve heard bohemian crystal is highly regarded, but everything there was well within my price range. Even though I thought some of the things they were selling were very nice, I opted not to get anything because I have no desire to try and bring a lot of delicate glass home on an airplane.
After most people were shopped out we hopped back on the bus and drove up to the based of the Jested tower. I guess I hadn’t read the trip description closely enough, but I had pictured a medieval look out tour in the woods. I was very wrong. The Jested tour is actually a space age pointed looking building/hotel/restaurant that sits on the top of one of the highest mountains in the Czech republic, which still is not that high. We took a funicular up to the top and had amazing views of the surrounding valleys from all angles. After walking around for a while, taking pictures and getting a much needed coffee we headed down the funicular once again and headed to the town of Liberec where we would be spending the night.
Liberec is one of the largest towns in Northern Bohemia and has around 90,000 residents. Ages ago it used to be a big textile center and there are still reminants of those factories. We arrived at the Hotel Praha which was a large art nuevo type hotel that looks out onto their square. The town center reminded me of a more peaceful Old Town Square without any tourists….imagine that. We rode the most amazing elevator (it was one of those cage like ones that you have to open two sets of doors yourself) up to our room, which was on the corner and looked out on a fabulous view. Oddly though when you looked into the square there were around 10 tanks. My first thought was that we had been invaded again!! I quickly realized they would not have brought a rock climbing wall and balloons, and it must have just been a recruiting thing.
We explored around the city a little before dinner and found a really overtly communist wall decoration. Then NYU paid for one of the best dinners I have had while I’ve been here. The woman leading the trip told us that the restaurant was a chain and that there were a couple of them in Prague, but everything was 100 kc more there. Before leaving the city I hadn’t realized how much more expensive it is there. In Prague for a cup of coffee I normally pay between 65 or 85 kc, but there you couldn’t find coffee above 50 kc.
NYU provided us with some ideas for places to go that night, but for some reason or another nothing really seemed to work out and we found ourselves just wandering the city looking for anything that would entertain us. I randomly came across what looked like a bar and had sheet music for wallpaper and thought we should check it out. To get to the bar you had to go down an unstable spiral staircase which opened up to a big lounge with couches, tables, and a juke box playing old American music. We were excited because it seemed to be filled with people our age just kind of hanging out and enjoying themselves. Almost as soon as we sat down a group of guys who we had seen while walking around stumbled down the stairs. They soon switched from just listing to the jukebox to singing loud Czech karaoke and doing a dance that everyone the bar seemed to know. I’m confident they were also trying to impress us because every now and then they would walk by or table, grab my hand and begin to use it as a microphone. This was all good for a while. They were so rowdy that we were curious how old they were, and when Justine tired to ask them they pulled up 16 fingers. After that we didn’t stick around much longer.
After breakfast the next day we had more free time to explore the city. Our goal was the botanical gardens (there wasn’t much actually going in Liberec), but we never actually got there. Some how we stumbled up on the Northern Bohemia Museum and decided this was as good as any a site to visit. Like most things in Liberec, the museum and all the people that worked there were all Czech, and spoke no English. That of course didn’t stop docent from trying to show and explain to us photos of the 1968 invasion after the Prague Spring. I’m not sure if she kept going because we were nodding at her and she thought we understood, or just liked us but she kept speaking to us in Czech for 20 minutes. The photo exhibit was really interesting, but I think what I actually liked the most were the displays containing keys and locks from the 17th century. I’ve never been overly enthusiastic about that sort of thing, but these were remarkable. The part of the key that unlocks it didn’t look like anything i had ever seen, some of them were in spirals and the handle of the keys were normally as big as your fist and intricately carved. We headed back after that and took a more residential route. I enjoyed just seeing the houses which were all much bigger that what I’ve seen in Prague and had huge lawns with fresh laundry hanging.
After a quick coffee we got back on the bus and headed through the countryside to Kost Castle. It was built in a very strategic location on a tall rock formation and it almost seems to rise out of the forest. I was surprised when we got there because all of a sudden this castle just appeared in front of us. Also, before our tour of the castle we had some time to kill so we went into the museum of fairytale creatures. It was like going to a zoo filled with old scary looking Harry Potter characters, but still super funny. I’m still not entirely sure of the history of the castle, but it was built for aristocratic family and has both gothic and baroque architecture in it. The insides which are very nicely decorated and they had a room filled with armor and weapons. We had to wear slippers that they provided over our shoes so that we didn’t damage the original floors.
After touring the castle we climbed back into the bus and drove back into Prague. Even though it was a short excursion we still were exhausted by the time we got back.
Also, on Sunday we went to the Prague Zoo which is actually rated the 7th best in the world, even over the one San Diego. One of the more “Czech” things about the zoo was right after you paid for your ticket there was a beer stand giving away free beer, but you had to pay for a map. People in Europe must have a different philosophy towards their pets because you see dogs EVERYWHERE. You see them in restaurants, on the tram, in grocery stores, and even in the zoo. Aside from the dogs seeing the animals was also fun. By far my favorites were the giraffes, but I also kind of felt bad for them because none of the animals had enough space.
Friday, September 5, 2008
The Orientating Begins
Nyu Orientation week is in full swing. Each day this week I wake up to a 2 and a half hour class called “survival Czech.” I now can, hypothetically, count to 100, order off a menu, give someone directions, and read phonetically. Even though it is monotonous I’ve enjoyed learning Czech here because even after the first day we started applying what we had learned. For instance, yesterday we went to a tiny Czech lunch place that had the same feel as a taqueria back home. Using a combination of pointing, telling her I wanted “jedna”, or a number one, I ordered the two open faced sandwiches I wanted. Also, simply being knowing how to say hello, thank you, and goodbye makes a notable difference in the way people interact with you.
I’m not pretty much fluent in Czech, it’s a really easy language.
NYU has provided us with several opportunities to get acquainted with Czech culture. On the first day we had an hour and a half lecture on Czech history given by one of the professors in the program. Jan Urban apparently is a well known Czech dissonant, journalist, and historian and had a very unique view on the history of the Czech republic. He talked about how if you want to understand the present attitude and situation here you only need to study the 19th century on. From the industrial revolution in the mid 1800’s till now the people have under gone several changes of loyalty. What was once the Austrian Hungarian empire, then became Czechoslovakia, then a protectorate of Germany, then ruled by the soviets, then liberated as an independent Czechoslovakia, and then split itself in two becoming the Czech republic. He talked about how the people of the Czech republic have the mentality of a little country and each time they have been had a regime change, they have switched their loyalty without asking any questions in order to avoid a potential dangerous or uncomfortable situation. One of the more random facts that I found interesting was the Czech people have a fascination with western cowboy/Indian culture. Apparently there are many famous Czech folk songs writing about life on the range and the western spirit. During communist times these we used as a form of dissent against the soviets.
This lecture carried over later that night when our RAs wanted to take us out to a fun restaurant they really liked. We walked down the street to a small Italian pizzeria (I am quickly learning that the Czechs like pizza almost more than Americans) and the inside of the restaurant was decorated in the Wild West theme. There were tomahawks and headdresses on the walls, to get to the patio outside you had to go through those swinging doors, and all of the dishes were called things like “eagle heart,” or “he who conquers all.”
NYU gave each student who wanted them free tickets to a cultural event of either: a tightrope walking circus, a selection of operas, or a hockey game. Of course, we chose the tightrope walking. The circus, held in a tent in the park over looking Prague and was doing its last performance in the city. Apparently the director, who is French, had helped to start circ de sole but had then split off to create his own tightrope walking circus. It was amazing. There were five performers who were able to run, do flips, walk on point and high heels, do the splits, and dance all while on a cable less than an inch wide. It was also neat because the background music wasn’t from a tape, but from a live band sitting above us. I think my jaw dropped several times over the course of their performance.
After the tight rope walking some of the RAs, who are Czech students themselves, told us to follow them to this look out spot in the park we were in. Letna Park used to be home to the biggest statue of Stalin in the world, but it was torn down in the 1950’s. Instead, now there is a giant red metronome in its place. After the circus we walked out to this point the statue used to be and you could see the whole city all lit up in front of us. I took some night time pictures and they turned out really well. Standing up there and seeing the city appear in front of you it was easy to understand why the soviet supporters would have placed the statue there, and even easier to see why others would have wanted to get rid of it.
I want to take a moment to describe the dynamic on the tram, which seems to also be a microcausm of the collective Czech persona. Trams are just like trolley cars traveling above ground, they go everywhere, and everybody rides them. To get to the center of town and school we have to take the tram for about 20 minutes. We had been told during a previous “welcome to Prague” lecture that we shouldn’t be alarmed, but the Czech people are much more reserved than Americans and tend not to be as loud in public. At that time I didn’t realize that it would mean that every trip on public transportation would be silent! Every time you talk above a whisper the other people stare you down. Inevitably our normal behavior has led to many many stare downs by Czech tram riders. Also, it’s even like that on the night trams which are used by people on their way to and from parties and clubs. Even after a big night out, its completely silent….except for us. Another noise factor about Prague is that they have quiet hours every night from 10 p.m. to 8 a.m. and if you are making noise late a night the neighbors will actually (and apparently, frequently do) call the cops. We haven’t had a problem yet, but I’m sure it is coming. It just seems odd to me that in a decently large city they would have such strict noise ordinances.
Part of the reason I choose to go on this program was because they offered so many opportunities to see Prague in different ways. They marketed their lecture series, outside Prague trips, and learning from the city not just school. Our RA’s are also Czech students who are living with us for the semester. These RAs are completely different from any RA I had at Kenyon because in some respect they have been our tour guides of the city. One night we were just sitting around the dorm talking and Lenka, who is an RA, popped in and told us she was going to a club and asked if we wanted to come. Though they don’t encourage drinking in the apartments, they are all for taking us to clubs, telling us about fun concerts happening around the city, and it seems like they also just want to hang out with us. In fact after we saw the great view of the city some of the Czech RAs we were with wanted to take us to get a beer at a Czech pub. We sat there for about an hour and we taught each other about each country’s respective education system, cinema, and current politics. I felt very intellectual actually. Another way NYU encourage us to learn about Czech culture is by organizing a series of trips throughout the semester to locations in the Czech Republic that you might not actually go to on your own. We were allowed to select one over night trip and one day trip from a list of about 20 possibilities. My friends/apartment mates chose to do a day trip that is in an area with lots of caves, so we’ll spend half the day hiking in the mountains and half the day exploring caves. Then for our overnight trip we’ll go to a small historic village called Cesky Krumlov that is supposed to be “the pearl of central Europe.”
Lots to look forward to this weekend with our first Friday and Saturday night in Prague and then classes on Monday! I’ve also figured out a great way to get to practice in the mornings.
I’m not pretty much fluent in Czech, it’s a really easy language.
NYU has provided us with several opportunities to get acquainted with Czech culture. On the first day we had an hour and a half lecture on Czech history given by one of the professors in the program. Jan Urban apparently is a well known Czech dissonant, journalist, and historian and had a very unique view on the history of the Czech republic. He talked about how if you want to understand the present attitude and situation here you only need to study the 19th century on. From the industrial revolution in the mid 1800’s till now the people have under gone several changes of loyalty. What was once the Austrian Hungarian empire, then became Czechoslovakia, then a protectorate of Germany, then ruled by the soviets, then liberated as an independent Czechoslovakia, and then split itself in two becoming the Czech republic. He talked about how the people of the Czech republic have the mentality of a little country and each time they have been had a regime change, they have switched their loyalty without asking any questions in order to avoid a potential dangerous or uncomfortable situation. One of the more random facts that I found interesting was the Czech people have a fascination with western cowboy/Indian culture. Apparently there are many famous Czech folk songs writing about life on the range and the western spirit. During communist times these we used as a form of dissent against the soviets.
This lecture carried over later that night when our RAs wanted to take us out to a fun restaurant they really liked. We walked down the street to a small Italian pizzeria (I am quickly learning that the Czechs like pizza almost more than Americans) and the inside of the restaurant was decorated in the Wild West theme. There were tomahawks and headdresses on the walls, to get to the patio outside you had to go through those swinging doors, and all of the dishes were called things like “eagle heart,” or “he who conquers all.”
NYU gave each student who wanted them free tickets to a cultural event of either: a tightrope walking circus, a selection of operas, or a hockey game. Of course, we chose the tightrope walking. The circus, held in a tent in the park over looking Prague and was doing its last performance in the city. Apparently the director, who is French, had helped to start circ de sole but had then split off to create his own tightrope walking circus. It was amazing. There were five performers who were able to run, do flips, walk on point and high heels, do the splits, and dance all while on a cable less than an inch wide. It was also neat because the background music wasn’t from a tape, but from a live band sitting above us. I think my jaw dropped several times over the course of their performance.
After the tight rope walking some of the RAs, who are Czech students themselves, told us to follow them to this look out spot in the park we were in. Letna Park used to be home to the biggest statue of Stalin in the world, but it was torn down in the 1950’s. Instead, now there is a giant red metronome in its place. After the circus we walked out to this point the statue used to be and you could see the whole city all lit up in front of us. I took some night time pictures and they turned out really well. Standing up there and seeing the city appear in front of you it was easy to understand why the soviet supporters would have placed the statue there, and even easier to see why others would have wanted to get rid of it.
I want to take a moment to describe the dynamic on the tram, which seems to also be a microcausm of the collective Czech persona. Trams are just like trolley cars traveling above ground, they go everywhere, and everybody rides them. To get to the center of town and school we have to take the tram for about 20 minutes. We had been told during a previous “welcome to Prague” lecture that we shouldn’t be alarmed, but the Czech people are much more reserved than Americans and tend not to be as loud in public. At that time I didn’t realize that it would mean that every trip on public transportation would be silent! Every time you talk above a whisper the other people stare you down. Inevitably our normal behavior has led to many many stare downs by Czech tram riders. Also, it’s even like that on the night trams which are used by people on their way to and from parties and clubs. Even after a big night out, its completely silent….except for us. Another noise factor about Prague is that they have quiet hours every night from 10 p.m. to 8 a.m. and if you are making noise late a night the neighbors will actually (and apparently, frequently do) call the cops. We haven’t had a problem yet, but I’m sure it is coming. It just seems odd to me that in a decently large city they would have such strict noise ordinances.
Part of the reason I choose to go on this program was because they offered so many opportunities to see Prague in different ways. They marketed their lecture series, outside Prague trips, and learning from the city not just school. Our RA’s are also Czech students who are living with us for the semester. These RAs are completely different from any RA I had at Kenyon because in some respect they have been our tour guides of the city. One night we were just sitting around the dorm talking and Lenka, who is an RA, popped in and told us she was going to a club and asked if we wanted to come. Though they don’t encourage drinking in the apartments, they are all for taking us to clubs, telling us about fun concerts happening around the city, and it seems like they also just want to hang out with us. In fact after we saw the great view of the city some of the Czech RAs we were with wanted to take us to get a beer at a Czech pub. We sat there for about an hour and we taught each other about each country’s respective education system, cinema, and current politics. I felt very intellectual actually. Another way NYU encourage us to learn about Czech culture is by organizing a series of trips throughout the semester to locations in the Czech Republic that you might not actually go to on your own. We were allowed to select one over night trip and one day trip from a list of about 20 possibilities. My friends/apartment mates chose to do a day trip that is in an area with lots of caves, so we’ll spend half the day hiking in the mountains and half the day exploring caves. Then for our overnight trip we’ll go to a small historic village called Cesky Krumlov that is supposed to be “the pearl of central Europe.”
Lots to look forward to this weekend with our first Friday and Saturday night in Prague and then classes on Monday! I’ve also figured out a great way to get to practice in the mornings.
Move in Day
I guess NYU described my neighborhood as ab “up and coming” area, but I think it still needs a little more work. It is situated in a residential neighborhood that is filled with other apartments like ours. The surrounding area has lots of bars, mini, markets, and fruit stands, but no real restaurants. Or at least restaurants/anything that aren’t open on Saturday. I arrived at Jauriscova 6 and after ringing the bell for about 10 minutes the door man (who doesn’t speak English) finally opened the door. The Veronika, the building manager, met me there and helped me bring my bags up stairs. The apartment is basically a suite. There are two triple rooms and two double rooms on my floor. All ten girls share a kitchen and two bathrooms. The rooms are really big, they have high ceilings, and enough storage space for all my clothes! Also there is a great view into the apartments across the street where a really fat man who likes to wash his windows wearing his boxers lives. I think the entire building saw him today because he was talked about for 20 minutes on our walk to lunch.
I have two roommates: Vanessa and Alisha. Vanessa is a senior from NYU who wasn’t able to go abroad her junior year because she had to finish her major, so she’s here now. Her boyfriend is actually here also and both of them are very nice. Alisha is a sophomore transfer student into NYU whos acceptance to the school was contingent upon going to Prague first. That seems really weird to me. I think this semester might be a little rough for her because this is her first time ever being away from home, and now she’s in Europe. There are about 5 other clusters of rooms there two more for boys, and 1 ½ for girls. Upstairs there is also a computer/study area. Even though the rooms are finished I think we are planning an Ikea trip to get some new pillows and other necessities
This evening we met up with a two of the other dorms for an NYU sponsored pizza dinner, they paid for dinner and we paid for drinks. I’m learning that most of the NYU people know about as many people as I do. Though they may share some similar experiences, they don’t actually know each other. This is kind of a relief because I’ve pictured coming here as the only one who didn’t know anyone. After dinner a bunch of us in my apartment decided we wanted to leave the restaurant and go search for a new bar. I think we may have been in the only part of Prague that doesn’t seem to have a bar every two feet, because the only place we found that wasn’t closing as we stepped in was the Casino Royal, a bar that also functions as the local strip club/herna bar. We went in and awkwardly stood around and decided that with 15 of us we couldn’t just walk out. It was such a weird place! They had two strippers that kept on passing by us to go change over and over again, and we couldn’t figure out why. After we had finally had enough of the casino royal and the sketchy old men there we left and took the metro home. We found out later in a lecture about living in Prague that these herna bars are where all the “dirty” people go and should avoid them at all costs….woops!
After the first day I’m feeling really positive about what the next 16 weeks will bring.
I have two roommates: Vanessa and Alisha. Vanessa is a senior from NYU who wasn’t able to go abroad her junior year because she had to finish her major, so she’s here now. Her boyfriend is actually here also and both of them are very nice. Alisha is a sophomore transfer student into NYU whos acceptance to the school was contingent upon going to Prague first. That seems really weird to me. I think this semester might be a little rough for her because this is her first time ever being away from home, and now she’s in Europe. There are about 5 other clusters of rooms there two more for boys, and 1 ½ for girls. Upstairs there is also a computer/study area. Even though the rooms are finished I think we are planning an Ikea trip to get some new pillows and other necessities
This evening we met up with a two of the other dorms for an NYU sponsored pizza dinner, they paid for dinner and we paid for drinks. I’m learning that most of the NYU people know about as many people as I do. Though they may share some similar experiences, they don’t actually know each other. This is kind of a relief because I’ve pictured coming here as the only one who didn’t know anyone. After dinner a bunch of us in my apartment decided we wanted to leave the restaurant and go search for a new bar. I think we may have been in the only part of Prague that doesn’t seem to have a bar every two feet, because the only place we found that wasn’t closing as we stepped in was the Casino Royal, a bar that also functions as the local strip club/herna bar. We went in and awkwardly stood around and decided that with 15 of us we couldn’t just walk out. It was such a weird place! They had two strippers that kept on passing by us to go change over and over again, and we couldn’t figure out why. After we had finally had enough of the casino royal and the sketchy old men there we left and took the metro home. We found out later in a lecture about living in Prague that these herna bars are where all the “dirty” people go and should avoid them at all costs….woops!
After the first day I’m feeling really positive about what the next 16 weeks will bring.
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