updates on my life

1. update from Belgium coming soon
2. I am obese from chocolate, waffles and frites
3. Reslife hates me (as I do it) and I'm back in Edmond's next year.
4. yay caitlin got housing
5. I REALLY hate BC Reslife.

that is all.

just a quick one

just a quick update today:

yesterday we had our wine tasting soirée, paid for by BC :) and it was awesome! we went into the cellars of the hospital, which is one of the biggest wine cellars in france, with the oldest wine in a barrel in the world (I think) - it was from 1472 and it smelled wonderful... but we couldn't drink any obviously. Instead we had other Alsacian wines: Crement, which was like champagne but better, less sweet I think, I dunno but it was good; Reisling, which was also good, spicy and sweet, fruity but also woody... it was complex lol; and we finished with Gewurstraminer (sp?), which was really sweet, it was a late harvest wine, which means that it was extra sweet. I really liked it, though, it was really good. However, after I got home, it was a little harder to concentrate on following conversations and making intelligent replies after 4 ish glasses of wine right in a row (he refilled my glass with Gewurtstraminer a second time). It was even harder trying to do my homework after those 4 glasses of wine lol, but oh well, it was an awesome experience, i didn't do it justice in this little blurb, but I wanted to make sure I wrote it down :)

Also, heading to Belgium (Brussels and Bruges) this weekend - expect pics and updates after!

Oh, and I finally got FB uploader to work, so pics are finally up :)

bisoux-

stories from a survivor of the BC excursion

haha you'll get the title towards the end.

Anyways, on Saturday, Susan planned an excursion for us with the Georgetown students and BCA (=Brethren Colleges Abroad, I think) students. Only Caitlin, Rebecca and Sam and I went out of the BC kids, but it was cool, definitely worth it, especially since everything was free.

We left from IEP at 9 and went on an hour ish bus ride to the Memorial of Alsace in Shirmeck, which was really cool and very well done. It chronicles the story of the Alsace region from the 1800s to now, and shows how the region changed hands from Germany to France multiple times. The most interesting section was definitely the WWII parts, which were really interesting and especially well done because that part was made to look like a battle scene, it was dark and there were [fake] trees and it sounded like you were being bombed. I'm butchering this exhibit, its really cool, a lot better than how I describe it. If you find yourself in Alsace with nothing to do for a day, go to Shirmeck lol.

From there we went and got lunch at this really good restaurant. We got a 3 course meal, complete with wine and coffee for free! We started with an entrée, which is like an appetizer plate, and it had grated carrots, beets, some other stuff and terriné, which is sort of similar to paté, I think. I didn't really like it, but oh well. The next course was a beef stew type dish and it was delicious, the beef was all tender and juicy and the sauce was delicious and it came with cabbage (bleh), mashed potatos (yay), a cooked pear (so good), and spaetzle! I love spaetzle, its a type of pasta that's made with egg, flour and water, basically. and its terrible for you because you usually fry it, but its really good. Then we finished with a dessert: some kind of cake with liquor and ice cream. I think it was a rum cake, but I couldn't tell what type of liquor it was. Whatever it was, it was amazing. That is one thing I'll miss about France - the food! haha then again, I do miss american food also... we'll see lol. oh yeah and then at the very end we got coffee or tea (I got café au lait, of course)

And then from there, we moved our massive girths (we all were stuffed) back to the bus to go on a hike. wellllll.... the road was closed. so we went on a scenic route to the same point, but from the back I think. We finally got to the convent where the hike started (Mt. Saint Odile) and looked around there for 30 minutes or so, took some pictures (it was on the side of the mountain overlooking cliffs) and then started our hike. The leader of our hike, Alex, was the leader of the BCA program. He knew the hike well, but we didn't. And he walked fast. The path was in the middle of the forest, covered with snow and ice and we were wearing regular walking shoes and regular clothes (I was in my pea coat, for example). So, obviously, many people fell behind. Well, that would've been fine if there was only one way in and out. Nope, lots of criss crossing paths going every which way. And did we have a map? of course not! That would be silly. Well, we luckily kept up with Alex, mostly by scrambling over rocks and jogging through ice and snow and hoping and praying we didn't fall or slip and break an ankle. Because if we did fall behind, we would've been on our own to find the way back to the bus. And a lot of people were behind and had to figured out their way back. Not to mention we started our hike at 4:30 and didn't finish until after 6, so the sun was starting to set and not everyone was back yet. Basically, it was a coordinator's nightmare, and the setting of a horror movie: dun duh duh dunnnnn: college students lost in the woods in a foreign country at night. And I could tell that's what Alex was thinking too, but he never stopped to wait for anyone, he just kept jogging along, at a quick pace and left people in the dust. Luckily, though, everyone made it back safe and sound and there weren't any broken ankles or really bad falls. They did straggle in for awhile, though, and if I were them, I would've been worried, because being lost in the woods at night is not my idea of fun. It actually could've been a disaster if someone had gotten hurt and couldn't get back to the bus or if someone had wandered off and gotten lost... thank goodness that didn't happen.

Then, with everyone safe on the bus and no one lost in the woods, we headed home. I was exhausted, but it was a fun day with adventures... pics coming soon :)

all the facets of being an american tourist...

...were covered our second day in Prague lol.

We got up late and had breakfast (the wonderfully american breakfast buffet at our hotel) and then went and wandered around Old Town a bit and then went and signed up for a walking tour! I don't remember the last time I did a real walking tour with a guide (that was unassociated with a school function), but it was cool! It was also freezing, but we survived... mostly. Anyways, we went and saw the old Jewish ghetto (its not a ghetto anymore, it contains the "wealthiest street in {Prague/the Czech Republic/Europe (I can't remember - oops!!)] lined with stores like Cartier, Hermes, Louis Vuitton, stores I haven't even heard of, etc.), a Jewish graveyard with 12 rows of graves (so the top of the graveyard is about 10 feet higher than the ground where we were standing), the oldest synagogue in Eastern Europe (Hitler didn't destroy it because he wanted to turn the whole area into a "museum of the inferior race"), a statue of Kafka that no one understands (see pics - its the one with a man on top of an empty suit: does the suit represent Kafka's father? does it represent Kafka himself as he walks down the street? Does it represent the state? draw your own conclusions, basically), and we made our way to Charles Bridge, which is the most famous bridge in Prague because it's the prettiest and oldest and has towers on each side. We started from Old Town square, so the guide explained the astronomical clock (not even gonna try, but it has roman, arabic and czech/european numbers, all of which tell you time differently. And it tells you when the sun will set. And it has a little show every hour where the two top windows open and you can see the 12 Apostles in them - not completely sure why, but it was cool- and then the rooster crows). He also told us about the Tyn Church, which are in my pics and as you can see (if you're looking at them), there are houses in front of the church, well the houses were there first, even though the church looks wayyy older. And also, the Czech have a thing against restoring old buildings; they think it cheapens them, so (there are some pics) there's a building in the town square, attached to the Tower with damage from WWII and they haven't been restored because they're there as a memorial to WWII. Pretty cool. Oh and [disclaimer: I was depressed upon learning this!] apparently, the entire front facade of the Notre Dame in Paris is completely different from how it used to be when it was made originally and the Czech think that's a shame (as do I, actually).

So that was our walking tour, it was lots of information in 2 hours, but very interesting information. After that, we all split up - Caitlin was freezing so she went home, Rebecca and Conner went a cafe where communist supporters gathered to make plans during WWII and I went to go see Tyn Church. I was actually rather disappointed with it, I guess the name should've warned me: Church, as in, NOT Cathedral lol. But it was cool, just not what I was expected. I couldn't take pictures, so you can't tell exactly what I mean, but I got such a feeling of militarism in the church. There were pieces of armor, swords and staffs on the inside and there was no crucifix. I don't know, it was a cool place, just very different from my image of European churches. From there I went back to Charles Bridge and walked across. the view was incredible, Prague (although freezing for much of the year) is in a beautiful part of the world. There were also street venders along the bridge, which was really cool, but I didn't buy anything. From there I caught the tram back to the hotel, where we met up to go to dinner. We ended up walking back and forth like 4 times, but eventually we found the restaurant and it was good, cheap, Czech food. I got the duck and it came with cabbage and potato dumplings. The duck was excellent, the dumplings were good and the cabbage was, well, not my favorite. From there we went back to the hotel and chilled for a bit and then got ready to go on a pub crawl (lol).

[should probably add a disclaimer here: craziness ensues! haha] We went to the first pub, where everyone gathered and we had free drinks for an hour, but it was a really awkward place, so we didn't drink much. From there we went to another fairly awkward pub, but there was some dancing, so it wasn't as bad. Until an obnoxious british man (like, 30s) sat too close to me and tried to talk to me. Sorry, I'm not interested in men 10+ years older than me, no matter what kind of accent they have. So we got up and wandered around, oh at this point, Conner and Rebecca left because they were bored. The next bar was better, it was more of a discotheque and had lazers and techno/house music. The last club, though, was the reason I stuck it out throw the first awkward ones. When we paid for the pub crawl, we got a free t-shirt and free entry into each pub/bar/club we went to. The last one was 5 stories and the biggest club in Central Europe. It was ridiculous. And awesome. And everything I thought European clubbing would be. Well Caitlin and I got in and checked our coats and then went to find a floor we'd like. We found the American hip-hop floor and it was amazing, they played all the typical american songs that are at parties and clubs, but it wasn't like a typical american club where everyone is having sex all over the dance floor, it was just more fun! And I didn't feel like all the guys in the room were going to roofie me (definite upside and difference from Spain), there was no inappropriate grabbing or anything, such a nice change. It was funny too, guys in Europe go to clubs and they actually dance! And they're actually good! I was dancing with a German kid (who spoke no English and I speak no German, it was interesting) and he was like a mime - interpretively hip-hop dancing but also using facial expressions... that sounds really weird when you read it, but he was really fun to dance with because he was a really good dancer. Eventually, we decided to leave the american floor and check out the other ones: there was a 80s/90s disco ish floor (pretty legit - the floor lit up in squares, like my image of 70s disco dancing, but the music was more 80s), a techno/house floor, a "chill" floor, another american music floor and the basement was part bar and restaurant and part gamish floor - house/hip-hop/techno/american/european, that was cool too.

Anyways, so we decided that we should probably get home eventually so we left around 3:45 am, which by Prague standards I think is pretty early, and went to the tram stop. But we missed both trams we could've taken by oh... TWO minutes. so we walked to the next stop. and the next stop. and the next stop. all the way to the hotel. at 4 am. We never felt unsafe or anything and neither of us were drunk, so don't worry, we made it alright and had a map and phones. But we did end up walking 3 miles and it took us an hour, so we got home at 4:50. bear in mind, the regular tram schedule starts at 5 am. So, we could've stayed at the club and left at 5 and gotten home like 20 minutes later lol. Oh well, moot point now.

So yeah, we got home, went straight to bed and then got up Sunday around 10:30 because we had to pack, shower, get breakfast and check out by 12. insane. but we did it. and then we went and wandered around downtown and spent our last koruny on souvenirs. I bought these beautiful crystal earrings from a crystal store - Czech crystal is really nice (at least, that's what we were told...) and the earrings are certified (they have a certificate!) Czech crystal, so I'm assuming they're good quality, because they were kind of expensive (and by expensive, i mean $25, so really, not that much), but they're really pretty, so I splurged :) And then we came home and then I was exhausted and nearly fell asleep at dinner lol

Anyways, this week has been uneventful since I've been a major slacker, so not much to tell, but I hope you enjoyed my adventures in Prague (because I definitely did! haha) tootles for now <3

"The Czech cuisine is heavy, fat, unhealthy but very nice"

1. pictures are up!
2. the above is a very true statement. lol

K, so I need to back up and update about Prague... also known as Praha.

Last week wasn't that exciting, I basically unpacked from Spain and repacked for Prague.

Caitlin, Rebecca and I left from Strasbourg airport on Thursday, basically right after class; our flight left at 7 and got in at 8:40 to Prague, and we met up with Connor, Rebecca's boyfriend there. When we were there talking to a cab driver, a lovely 40 something looking man came up and tried to kidnap Caitlin: welcome to Prague! haha, but seriously, it was creepy and made us a little wary about this Czech town. So we got to the hotel (got completely ripped off by the cab driver, but didn't figure that out till later... oh well, lesson learned) and it was so nice! We stayed at the Plaza Alta Hotel for a ridiculously cheap price - $45 a night (so, $22 each since Caitlin and I were sharing the room) AND we got a free buffet breakfast - I'll get there in a sec - AND they had apples all over the place, so we would take those too (not sure if we were supposed to or if they were supposed to be decorative but oh well! lol). So we all got there, got our rooms, sat down for a bit and unpacked sort of (however much you can unpack when you packed for a weekend in a backpack) and then went down to the hotel bar/mexican restaurant for our complimentary drink and a basket of chips and salsa (so Czech, I know lol). Then we all decided to try a shot of absinthe, because, well, we couldn't try it any other place, so might as well. So the waitress brought us 4 shots of absinthe and while we looked apprehensively at the green liquid in the huge shot glasses, she asked, "Um, would like a glass of water or something...?" to which we replied, "YES, water please." She brought the water, we took the shots, downed the water and then waited for a green fairy to appear. No such luck. Not even weird dreams at night. Very disappointed in the absinthe (although that's probably a good thing, I might've freaked out if I started hallucinating). After that, we went to bed in the comfy hotel :)

Friday we planned to meet in the lobby at 11 to start our day of adventuring. So, we got up and went to breakfast a little before that. The breakfast was heaven. It was a full American style hot buffet featuring scrambled eggs, fried eggs, sauteed tomatoes, bacon, sausage, pastries, different kinds of cereal, different kinds of bread, fruit, yogurt, cold cuts, cheese, coffee and juice. as I said, HEAVEN. And since it was free, we stuffed ourselves to bursting, that way we wouldn't have to buy lunch. From there we went to the "Eiffel Tower of Prague" which was really just a lookout post that was about 1/10 the size of the real Eiffel Tower. So we climbed all the way up - I must've burned off at least one pastry that way - and could see all of Prague (see pics!) And then we went to the "Castle" of Prague (it was actually more like a series of buildings built around the cathedral) and tried to get in, but then we found out that it would've been like 500 koruny (I don't actually know the plural or spelling of the Czech currency, we called it all kinds of names - koruner, koruny, koruna, korunas, etc lol) which would've been around $25-30, so we were like uh, no thanks. So we walked around and went in the Cathedral, which was free. I am such a church nerd, I love snapping pics of cathedrals and churches and trying to see if I can find where they renovated or added on to the original structure. After the cathedral, we were all freezing, so we went to find a cafe and sit inside somewhere. We found one and Caitlin and I tried the hot wine - it was really good! It tasted kind of like a cross of wine and hot cider. Plus, it was warm. That was necessary. Ok, anyways, after the hot wine, we decided to head back to the hotel to chill for a bit, then head out for a Czech meal for dinner. The receptionist told us about this restaurant in Old Town (there's Old Town and New Town. Old Town was built in the 11th century and New Town was built in the 14th. It's really new, as you can tell lol) so we found it and all ordered. First Rebecca got beer sausages in beer, which (be proud of me!) I tried - and hated - but still tried. The sauce was really good though. I got the "meat roll" which was basically beef in a spicy sauce wrapped in a butter pastry bread. It was delicious. Connor got a meat plate that came with 2 types of neck, 1/4 of a duck and some sausage. Rebecca got smoked meat in potato dumplings and Caitlin was healthy and got a salad (but with a side of baked potatoes... except the potatoes were baked in bacon grease... the Czech love their fats and carbs...) Then we went and wandered around, found an Irish pub and went inside and had a drink, that was fun, there was a guy playing American and Irish songs. We left from there and went to this place called the Beer Factory, where there's a tap on the table! lol it was funny. It started as a pretty chill place and we all got free drinks with the cover charge, so we sat and chilled and drank our beer. Then the DJ started playing American dance songs so it started getting more fun. Connor bought us a round of drinks and he got a B-52, which is a shot of half kahlua and half Baileys with a bit of Absinthe on top. The Berliners at the table next to us showed us how its done. I'll try to explain as best I can: you light the Absinthe on fire and then lick the palm of your hand. Then you quickly cover the shot glass with the wet part of your palm to put out the fire. The fire uses up the oxygen in the glass, so it creates a vacuum so the glass sticks to your hand, allowing you to shake the glass and mix the Baileys and kahlua and then after all that, you actually take the shot. So we had some fun at the Beer Factory haha... the Berliners were fun too!

Ok, I still have to write up about saturday and sunday, but I really need to do some homework (I know, homework? while studying abroad? what???) so I will post about that soon. I hope.

adios!

back from Prague...

had *such* a great time walking around the city and discotheque-ing it up at night! pics and update coming soon, just wanted to let people know I'm back, and will write soon about the different styles of architecture we saw, the heavy, fat laden, but delicious food we had and the craziness of the 5 story club where we partied.

:)

off to Praha!

aka. Prague (although, I like "Praha" except that I want to keep going: Prahahaha! lol)

be back on Sunday! expect updates sometime after that! have a great weekend! :)