Wraping up the weekend

Now that my personality project is done, I haven't really done anything class-related. Monday felt like a lazy Sunday and the only significant thing i did was watch a Czech movie at the theater. It was super cool because it took place during the Reinhard assassination in Prague. It was totally relevant to the course we are taking. I felt super proud of myself for knowing what was going on in the film. If it wasn't for this class, I wouldn't really understand what was going on in the movie, because it didn't explain it. It's such common knowledge in The Czech Republic that there's never a need to explain that event.

After the movie, Ashley, Ellisa and I went to an over-priced cafe and had desert. My chocolate cake was delicious and I was completely content with the evening even though the place was over-priced....untill the waiter come and basically told us how much tip we should leave him. I guess he thinks we don't know that waiters here get paid a salary and that its up to the customer to decided how much if any tip to leave. It really upset all of us and we did leave him a tip (not what he asked for) and decided we're not going there again.

I cooked today, and I was so impressed with myself cuz my food rocked. I'm not much of a cook but I'm trying to teach myself. Ima go home and keep forcing myself to cook. My mom isn't gana believe me when i tell her that I'm cooking.

Tomorrow we are finally going to Tarazin. I know its kinda weird but I've wanted to go to a concentration camp every since i found out about them. Its just such an unbelievable time period that I feel I can't really understand it till I see it. Physically being there can only deepen my understanding of what people went thought, much more than reading about it.

I also have to figure out exactly what I'm going to do for my final project for the Czech studies class. I think I'm gana do Old Town Square, its simple enough so i can focus on the content of the photos and forget about its relevance to the class. Because whats more relevant to Prague than Old Town?

Kafka, your a freak

Most of the week was focused on this strange guy named Kafka. He is one of Prague's most famous writer, maybe even most famous person. We had a lecture about his works on Tuesday and visited the Kafka Museum on Wednesday. I can't really say I'm a fan of his work or style but I can defiantly appreciate a well-thought-out museum. I would recommend it even if you have no idea who the guy is. That same day I went to St. Vitus Cathedral, which is FREE! Its by far the best church I have seen in Prague. It is huge and the Mucha stain glass is breath-taking.

Thursday we went to the Mucha Museum, and although I am a fan of his art, it was pretty dull. The gift shop was much more exciting and it showed all the same art. Oh, we tried this Asian place for lunch and I was really impressed with my meal. It was better than the kind I get in Austin. That was a big surprise, even though it's strange to expect Texas Asian to be better than Prague Asian.

So.....this project for my photo class is really killing me. I have to find a person to photograph for a photo story. I've been playing cat and mouse with this guy that plays the trumpet on the towers around Prague all weekend. I have only gotten to photograph him once and I can't get him anymore. Every time I go he's not there or I just miss him. I'm getting really pissed about it. I don't have much confidence in this project but that's why I'm gana kick butt on the final handbook project. I have another project to do for the Czech studies class and I'm not really sure what I'm gana focus on. But I only have two weeks to take my photos, which is why I've just been taking photos like crazy...somethings gotta look good.

Other than this project race, my weekend has been really great. I went to Petrin Hill yesterday with Ashley and had a lot of fun on this fake Paris Tower thing. It had really good views of Prague. It was not till then that I realized that I've been all over Prague. No matter what direction I looked in, I could find a landmark/building that I've been too. I felt like a local for the first time! I also realized that I'm leaving in two weeks and that really bothers me.

Today, I shopped alllll day. I had so much fun doing it too. For weeks I've been putting off major shopping trips so that I could go on a day when I could take as long as I wanted. Today was that day. I left to church this morning and after missing the tower guy again, went shopping all over old town. Found some awesome deals at H&M by the way.

So my weekend is almost over. Tomorrow I don't have much planned besides going to my professor's apartment so he can look at my pictures and give me some feedback. In theory, I could go shopping again but I don't think that's such a good idea. I've gotta find some low-cost way to entertain myself. I'm thinking about going to Barcelona or Rome this weekend but no one has made any concrete plans.

The downside of my 'travels' has finally surfaced. I knew this was too good to be true. So I'm gana be home for three weeks after I go home...then on the last day of July, Juan comes home. On Aug. 1, I leave to Mexico! I'm pretty mad about this because I'll be gone for two weeks and will only have one week to spend with Juan before I go back to Austin! So I'm basically spending the whole summer without him. That's just not right. I already miss that boy and now I realize I'm not even half way there yet. Obviously, he is still not very happy with me, but what I'm I supposed to do? It's not something I can control.

Hopefully this week will bring better, much better news as I start to wrap things up here in Prague. I have to start mentally preparing myself for that Texas summer heat.

Czech Excursion

This weekend we went on an excursion around the Czech Republic. We visited a couple of castles, a brewery, and I even had a near-death experience.... sort of. We left Prague on Friday morning and visited our first castle before lunch time. The views were amazing and I was really over-whelmed to be at a castle for the first time ever. On Friday we also stopped at Pilsen Brewery, which is a very famous beer in The Czech Republic. I had never been to a brewery before but it really cool to see how much technology is used.

We spent the night in a small town called Cesky Krumlov, and it was by far my favorite town. This place was so charming and had lots of activities available. We toured the Cesky Krumlov Castle in the morning after a great breakfast at the hotel. This castle was breath-taking, inside and out. It was decorated like a typical Renaissance castle with all the bells and whistles. The most notable features were the golden carriage in a "living room," the velvet covered party room and the massive banquet hall with creative fresco's. It was beautiful. I almost cried as I thought of all the times I pretended to be a princess in a Disney-like castle. It felt like I fulfilled one of my childhood dreams...I just needed my Prince.

Later in the afternoon we went to a photo gallery and I saw what photographers used to make photos in the old days. Let me just say, it's gotten a lot easier. Some of those machines looked like torture instruments, not photo equipment. I learned a lot about photography and gained an appreciation for those who did it for a living.


The rest of the afternoon was spent on RAFTING!! There is a river that goes right thought the town and we had to do it! This is where my near-death-experience comes in. There were three areas that had rapids and when we reached the third, we didn't know which way to go. We had two options, right or left, and up till then we were supposed to stay to the left. So we were aiming for the left, but when we were five feet from the rapids, this guy comes from the side wall and says to go right because we were headed for a drop. We started panicking and somehow we ended up missing the drop and made it in the rapids. As soon as we looked back we could see the 10 ft. drop we barley averted! Now, I can't really swim and I wasn't wearing a life jacket. If I had not hit my head against the walls, I probably would have drown.


Other than that small 'setback', rafting was really fun.

We spent Saturday night in a new town called Ceske Budejovice and toured the town early the next morning. I wasn't really impressed by this place, it didn't have anything that I deemed unique. However, it would be hard to top Ceske Krumlov no matter where we went. We left after lunch and made another stop at Jindrichuv Hradec, which had another castle! We kinda just hung out on the castle grounds and took pictures. We decided not to tour the place, I think everyone we just exhausted from all the traveling. Therefore, we finally headed back to good-old-Prague. It was weird to consider home as being Prague.

So I think I can take The Czech Republic off my list of Places to See. We saw at least one-forth of it in one weekend but it was worth the trip. I got 'home' and went straight to bed.

Half way done??!!!

I have been in Prague about three weeks already but I still feel like we've barley scratched the surface. There is still so much I want to do before I leave and I don't see how I am going to get all that done in time. I mean, I JUST found some jalapenos the other day, so I'm barley getting used to things here.

The past three days have been full of class, so I haven't done much else. However, this program is sooo cool that most of the places we've visited have been on my list anyways. The highlight has been our tour of the Jewish Quarter next to Prague's Old Town. The Jews have been part of Prague's history since the early 10th century, so they make up a huge part of the culture. Jews have always had a history full of prosecution, and the Czech Jews are no different. The Jewish Quarter was a ghetto for many centuries and it wasn't till after WWII that they completely demolished it and rebuilt the area. Today, it is one of the most sought-after location in Prague.

Despite its complete make-over, most of the synagogues were preserved and are now museums. We visited at least three in the same area and then went to visit the Old Jewish Cemetery. This place is kind of heart braking, especially when you hear its importance and history. Jews were not allowed to mingle with the rest of Prague, not even the dead ones. They were given a small piece of land to berry their dead and of course, it eventually filled up. Since they were not granted more land, they had to bury on top of the people who were already there! It is estimated that as many as 12 layers of bodies exist in this centuries old cemetery.

Walking through it is an extraordinary experience. Most of the stone slabs are unreadable and some are literally back-to-back to each other. During the Nazi occupation, the cemetery was the only place in Prague were Jews were allowed to 'hang out.' Meaning that this was their 'park' and 'entertainment.' Kids were raised playing in a creepy old cemetery.

One a lighter note, today the class went to a wine-tasting with Ladislav Venys, a guest lecturer over the Communist era. This was soo much fun, we got to just hang out with each other for a couple of hours and drink all this amazing wine. This is the most wine I have ever consumed in my life, so I was definitely feeling it. It was like 16 different wines and I made myself stay for all of them! Hey, I had to get my moneys worth.

Tomorrow we leave on our three-day excursion around the Czech Republic. We are scheduled to check out a couple of castles and breweries along with other smaller activities. I am supper excited to see what the rest of this country looks like. Hopefully these towns will be as charming and charismatic as Prague.

This weekend looks promising and I can't wait to milk this trip for all its worth!

Socialite weekend

My second weekend in Prague was full of new experiences and I can't believe how lucky I am to be here. Since we don't have class on Fridays, the weekend started Thursday night at a dance club. Czech people will dance to anything apparently. They were playing songs from different musicals, like that Mama Mia movie. I have never seen that before. Even thought the music was different, I has a good time and I would even go again. When your in good company like I was, any setting can be fun.

Friday consisted of one mission: find something to wear to the Oxford and Cambridge Garden Party. This party was really high-class so I had to find some formal outfit since I didn't pack anything like that. I have never gotten the chance to attend an Oxford or Cambridge affair so I never imagined I would need to prepare for that. No worries though, I will never turn down an opportunity to go shopping in Prague. I bought the two skirts in the above pictures and wore shirts I already had.

One of our guest lecturer, Lukas Sedlacek, invited our group to this Garden Party since he was the one organizing the event. We were all really excited to meet some alumni and mingle with some important people. The party was at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, which happens to be one of the most expensive hotels in Prague. (first pic)

This party was very classy with its open bar and wonderful out door music. You could tell these people were prestigious guest of their respective schools. We even got a chance to talk to the key note speaker who is the director of alumni affairs at Cambridge. However, the highlight had to have been meeting the guys from Cambridge's Row Team. They eventually come over to where we were hanging out probably because we were a pretty large good-looking group of girls. They were all really polite and it was so effortless and fun to talk to them about where they were from and their school.

It was so refreshing to be at such a refined party. I could carry on a conversation with someone without yelling in their ear and I went home without smelling like cigarettes. I felt like such a European Socialite. I can definitely get used to this, so sign me up.

The next day my socialite weekend continued with reservations at the National Theatre to watch Othello. (second pic) Ballet was never part of my Mexican upbringing so this was also a new experience for me. My family's idea of recreational 'fun' is having a bar BBQ in the backyard with the radio on blast. That's our equivalent to "enjoying the arts." Watching the little girls with their grandma's was so cute and bizarre to me at the same time. Again, I felt out of place but super lucky to be there. I think I am officially a fan of the ballet, although it was kind of confusing. Without dialogue, it was hard to follow. If I didn't already know the plot of Othello, I don't think I would have understood at all. What never fails to disappoint me is the music, I love listening to classical.

As soon as the clock showed the end of the weekend at 12 a.m. it was back to "normal partying." We went to this bar/club Sunday night and I really missed the atmosphere of the garden party. We were dancing on broken glass amid a cloud of smoke, and avoiding all the creeps in the place. My life as a socialite was officially over. Darn.

No worries, I'll make it to the high class someday.........yeah right. This weekend flew by so I'm taking today pretty slow.

The only thing that seems to continually bother me is Juan. That sounded bad but what I mean is that I really miss him. I'm used to long distance but its hard to swallow the fact that I'm having an amazing time without him. Most of my most memorable moments include Juan, and it just don't seem fair that these don't. Other than that, I LOVE PRAGUE!!!

The rain refuses to go away

Through crypt, museums, and memorials, the rain has remained a constant these past few days. I'm honestly not a fan of this weather. However, Darling insist that the "heat" (nothing compared to Texas heat) is coming.

Tuesday we visited the Church of Saints Cyril and Methodist, where the Czech paratroopers who assassinated the German Nazi Reinhard Heydrich, were hiding out till their eventual shootout with the Nazi's and suicide. I enjoyed the trip and I has never been in a crypt before so that was a treat. It was not as spooky as I anticipated, but maybe that's just because I was with a large group of people. I'm not gana dork-out by retelling all the cool historical background that I LOVE about this place, but I was definitely diggin this place.

There was also a one room museum regarding this historical event in the church, and it was really good as well. I wasn't expecting much but its worth looking at it. Like always, I was one of the last ones who was ready to leave. This place is really close to our apartment ( like 3 tram stops) so I might go back on my own.

Today we took a day trip to the village of Lidice outside of Prague. After the assassination of Heydrich, Hitler ordered the destruction of Lidice as a punishment to the Czech people. On June 10, 1942 the Nazis murdered all the men, sent the women to concentration camps, and most of the children died in a gas chamber on the way to another concentration camp. After all the inhabitants were gone, they completely destroyed any remains of the town, going as far as digging out all the graves and cutting down all trees of the village.

In the afternoon, we meet with a women named Jaroslava Sklenickova who survived the concentration camp and returned to her home town of Lidice. She is an amazing women, with lots of enthusiasm. Even when she was talking about her life in the camp, she could still mention "happy" moments, and even laugh. I feel like I could have listened to her talk for hours. testimonial like that are so rare in our time and its hard to imagine that one day all the survivors of this tragedy that was WWII will be gone. I feel extremely grateful to get to spend time with this women and hear her powerful story.


I love all this WWII history we are getting. When I signed up for this trip, I never expected to learn so much history. History is probably by favorite subject ever, so this is heaven. Juan is my witness that one of my favorite channels is the History Channel, and National Geo (which is about the same). I couldn't ask for anything more from this trip. It was like someone planned this trip based on one simple question: 'What would Dana like to do this summer?'

If your cool, you'll check out the links to get more background info. Well on a lighter note, I don't know if I mentioned this but I found some "Prague hot sauce"....kind of. It smell funky but it gets the job done. I don't know why I feel that I always have to end with this but remember, it is the name of my blog.

Not gana lie, the zoo was super cool

Prague's zoo kicks ass! It is by far the best zoo I have ever been too. The human-animal interaction gives you a chance to really get close and personal with the animals. There isn't a lot of prison bars obstructing your view and I felt that a lot of the animals could even leave their enclosure if they wanted to. We got to the zoo around 2 p.m. and to be honest, the day did not look promising. I was expecting rain and cold, so that is what i was prepared for. However, after an hour or so, it was hot and perfect. I can't imagine a more perfect day for the zoo. We actually just sat around in different places most of the time to enjoy the weather.

My favorite section was of the giraffes. Their enclosure was a huge green field with a villa and a little village in the background! It was amazing to look at. I would love of live in those homes and watch the giraffes everyday in my backyard.

Another noteworthy feature was this zip line that took you up and down this hill. It was so much fun and the views were worth it. I'm a big chicken with these things but I'm really glad I sucked it up and got on it both ways. Now think about it: How many zoos have a freak'n zip line! That in itself is reason enough to go check it out.

So apparently it's socially acceptable to let your kids pee in public in Prague (or maybe just the Prague zoo). I saw at least four kids pull down their pants and just do their thing in the grass! No joke we were staring at a little boys bear butt in disbelief as he peed away. Then he proudly pulled up his little pants, walked back to the table where is mom was, and continued playing on his game boy. I'm not sure what to think yet but it was definitely different.

After the zoo we ended up at this Tex-Mex place close to our apartments. It was good considering we are in Central Europe eating Texas food. By far the closest thing to home food. Still not as spicy as I'm used too. They had some hot sauce, but nothing as good as back home. I think its strange that I packed Alka-Seltzer in preparation for the spicy food I was gana eat, but I can't get anything spicy!

Finally....my blog.....

I've been studying abroad in Prague for six days now and decided my blog is long over due. So to get some of the basics out of the way: I'm in Prague, Czech Republic studying photography and Czech culture for six weeks. Even thought it has been six days, I feel like they just flew by. We have been busy exploring, getting comfortable in our apartments, going to class and trying to meet some interesting people.

Since I'm behind a couple of days, I am just going to summarize what happened these last days.

I left DFW Friday night and got a connecting flight in London on my way to Prague. Once some of my group and I were picked up, we got our first taste of the city of Prague.

Sunday, we realized Dr. Darling, our professor, was still back home because his flight was cancelled, therefore, we were on our own till Monday. He advised the few people who were already in Prague to go to an old church and grave yard park a few blocks away. Vsyehrad fortress was amazing and had spectacular panoramic views of Prague as well as cute cafes and restaurants. At night most of the group went downtown to "explore the night life." Nuf said.

The next day was orientation in the morning and a welcome diner in the evening. The diner was at a restaurant close to the Prague Castle and had its own brewery. My only complaint was that I was really cold walking around at night on our long walk to the tram stop.

Tuesday for photography class, we took a trip by subway to an old cemetery in Prague. The cemetery was actually beautiful in the sense that it was so old and had elaborate graves with status. It was unlike anything I have ever seen back home. I learned how to use some of the settings on my fancy-pants camera.

Early the next morning, half the group went on a bike tour with our professor. We saw most of the Old Town, Jewish Quarter, and Little Quarter in about three hours. I personally was freezing but the tour was totally worth it. We saw the John Lennon Wall, some creepy statues of some babies and another fountain of these two guys peeing on the Czech Republic. It is a must-see.

Today was equally exciting. We photographed a Gypsy parade that started in Wenceslas Square, and ended at the Old Town Square. In the evening, we went to the same fortress in our neighborhood to watch and Romeo and Juliet in English. Everything has been so much fun and I feel overwhelmed with everything I want to do during my stay.

I'm going write a lot more often so that I can elaborate more and talk about the good and bad experiences I have on a daily bases. Oh, and the title happens to be one of my first bad ones. I can't find any freak'n hot sauce in any stores or even at the restaurants I've been too. I wish I had packed my bottle of Valentina or Chulula. To stress my point, I haven't even been able to find jalapenos in the stores to at least bit in one or make my own sauce. Anyways... Prague is a great city.