Sorry I've been so horrible about updating this thing, there's just so much going on all the time! The last thing I talked about was the end of the 2 week intensive Czech language course and our celebratory night afterwards. I had a chill weekend, then my regular semester classes started on Tuesday, which was nice. We (as in most people in the program that I'm here with) went to this American bar called The Drunken Monkey for Superbowl Sunday, which was a really place and we all had a really good time! I only have class Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday here, so the 4 day weekends are the best, but the classes themselves are really cool and all have to do with Prague and the Czech Republic to some extent. It's awesome to live in the same place that I learn about in all my classes, especially when my professors tell me awesome places to go and things to see, such as free concerts and amazing restaurants.
At the end of the week, we took a program field trip to Lidice, Litomerice, and Terezin, small towns in the northern Czech Republic. Lidice was a village that was completely razed by the Nazi's in 1942 as retaliation against the assassination of the head Nazi official in the Czech Republic. They destroyed everything, murdered most of the men and sent the rest of the women and children off to concentration camps. There's a museum and a memorial near the site of the village now and then you can walk through where the village used to be and see commemorative statues and memorials set up to remember all of those who died at Lidice when this happened. It's a truly humbling experience, standing in the middle of a barren field where an entire village once stood.
Next, we went to Litomerice for lunch and some free time. It's this quaint little town north of Prague with tons of cool things to see, including their historic town square. After getting lunch and walking around for a little bit, we all filed back on to the bus to head to Terezin, which is a town that was converted in to a ghetto under the Nazi occupation to house most of the Jews of the Czechoslovak region during WWII. It's crazy walking through a town that used to be an overcrowded ghetto, seeing it still function normally. We visited the crematorium that was built near the town to burn all the bodies of the dead that accumulated because of the malnutrition and unsanitary living conditions, which was another humbling experience in itself. Afterwards, we took a guided tour of the Gestapo prison that was built in the Small Fortress just outside of town, where they held political dissidents and other POWs, as well as many, many Jews. The prison was truly like a concentration camp, and all the conditions were very poor. We also saw a movie about the Terezin ghetto and the Gestapo prison which was mind blowing. Overall, I think everyone had a very somber and humbling day, and the bus ride home was eerily quiet.
The rest of the weekend is kind of a blur. Nothing of much importance happened, we just went out and did some more sightseeing and such, and went out at night, but it was a very chill weekend.
I'm also hoping to stay longer after our program end date and travel around Europe for a couple weeks, so we'll see how that works out, and I've been putting more and more thought in to studying abroad again next spring. I can't bear the thought of going home right now, so I think that's what's bringing all of this about. I love all of you back home, but the thought of leaving and going back to Maryland is a frightening one that I'm just not ready to face yet, so I'm putting all of my energy in to these options, instead. I found this awesome program called SIT that has programs all throughout the world, but mainly in developing countries where students get the chance to work in the community and help with ongoing projects as well as take classes and do research. I'm really looking to go somewhere in Africa (Ghana, maybe?) through this program next spring because it seems like such an awesome opportunity! We'll see what happens though.
This last week and weekend will have to come in another post tomorrow hopefully, so keep tuned!
Monday, February 21, 2011
Friday, February 4, 2011
So much dancin'!
So much has happened in the past week! For some reason, this week seemed to go by so much faster than the first week. I think it was probably because I started doing more and not spending so much time around the apartment. But anyways...
Karlovy Lazne was quite interesting. It's the 5 story dance club in the middle of Old Town, and we basically met someone from every country except the Czech Republic; it's a huge tourist trap, but it was a lot of fun, especially since basically everyone from USAC went and we all had a really good time. Each floor was a different theme, and of course there was an 80s/90s American pop floor, so naturally that's where I spent most of my time. Getting home was quite the adventure since the metro/trams stop running on a regular schedule at midnight, but that's a story for a different time.
The rest of the weekend I was just chilling, we went out and found some cool bars Saturday and Sunday night, but nothing too exciting. We also explored Mala Strana (Lesser Quarter) and the castle district across the river both days, which was really cool and absolutely gorgeous (I posted a ridiculous number of photos of it on facebook.) On Saturday the weather was beautiful so we walked across Charles Bridge and took a train to the top of Petrin Hill, which is the highest hill in the city. At the top you can look out and see all of Prague sprawling below you, which is so cool. On Sunday, we wandered more through Mala Strana and walked up the hill to the castle, which is just stunning. There's so much history to see here, it's amazing.
Monday started week 2 of intensive Czech language, so my mornings were spent once again holed up in a classroom trying to cram my brain full of one of the most difficult languages to learn, but I'm starting to catch on. We had our final yesterday and I got a 98/100, so hopefully that means something, especially since I'm taking Czech language during the regular semester, too. My afternoons during the week are mostly spent napping and cleaning the apartment or going shopping or whatever I can find to occupy my time, so that's my down time before everyone hangs out and gets dinner for the night.
Wednesday night we went to this really chill bar called the Cross Club where everything inside is made from old discarded metro and tram parts, and then we went to this dance club Mecca because it's college night on Wednesdays, so there's no cover. Dancing has totally become my thing here because there are so many dance clubs to go and they're all super fun, so I feel like I go all the time, but I love it.
Last night capped off the week because everyone went out to celebrate the end of the Czech intensive course by going to (yet another) night club, but it was super fun. Megan (who is also from UMD!) and I made friends with this group of Norwegian guys who were in Prague for the weekend for their friend's bachelor party, so we hung out with them all night and learned all about Norway and the places we should visit if we ever go. And then we left when the metro started running again this morning, it's so deceiving because the clubs here don't close around 3 like they do back home, they stay open as long as there are people there, so they're easily open until 5 or 6, which is crazy. Oops. I was supposed to go ice skating today, but that unfortunately didn't work out, so I'm just chilling now and I'll probably go to the bank and grocery store later, but feel free to hit me up on skype if you want, it's quiet today, and I'm usually on whenever I'm in the apartment :) username: andrewcahoon
Sorry this is so ridiculously long, but I figured I'd talk about everything so that I can have a record for when I want to look back on this in the future and remember everything, too :) Enjoy!
Karlovy Lazne was quite interesting. It's the 5 story dance club in the middle of Old Town, and we basically met someone from every country except the Czech Republic; it's a huge tourist trap, but it was a lot of fun, especially since basically everyone from USAC went and we all had a really good time. Each floor was a different theme, and of course there was an 80s/90s American pop floor, so naturally that's where I spent most of my time. Getting home was quite the adventure since the metro/trams stop running on a regular schedule at midnight, but that's a story for a different time.
The rest of the weekend I was just chilling, we went out and found some cool bars Saturday and Sunday night, but nothing too exciting. We also explored Mala Strana (Lesser Quarter) and the castle district across the river both days, which was really cool and absolutely gorgeous (I posted a ridiculous number of photos of it on facebook.) On Saturday the weather was beautiful so we walked across Charles Bridge and took a train to the top of Petrin Hill, which is the highest hill in the city. At the top you can look out and see all of Prague sprawling below you, which is so cool. On Sunday, we wandered more through Mala Strana and walked up the hill to the castle, which is just stunning. There's so much history to see here, it's amazing.
Monday started week 2 of intensive Czech language, so my mornings were spent once again holed up in a classroom trying to cram my brain full of one of the most difficult languages to learn, but I'm starting to catch on. We had our final yesterday and I got a 98/100, so hopefully that means something, especially since I'm taking Czech language during the regular semester, too. My afternoons during the week are mostly spent napping and cleaning the apartment or going shopping or whatever I can find to occupy my time, so that's my down time before everyone hangs out and gets dinner for the night.
Wednesday night we went to this really chill bar called the Cross Club where everything inside is made from old discarded metro and tram parts, and then we went to this dance club Mecca because it's college night on Wednesdays, so there's no cover. Dancing has totally become my thing here because there are so many dance clubs to go and they're all super fun, so I feel like I go all the time, but I love it.
Last night capped off the week because everyone went out to celebrate the end of the Czech intensive course by going to (yet another) night club, but it was super fun. Megan (who is also from UMD!) and I made friends with this group of Norwegian guys who were in Prague for the weekend for their friend's bachelor party, so we hung out with them all night and learned all about Norway and the places we should visit if we ever go. And then we left when the metro started running again this morning, it's so deceiving because the clubs here don't close around 3 like they do back home, they stay open as long as there are people there, so they're easily open until 5 or 6, which is crazy. Oops. I was supposed to go ice skating today, but that unfortunately didn't work out, so I'm just chilling now and I'll probably go to the bank and grocery store later, but feel free to hit me up on skype if you want, it's quiet today, and I'm usually on whenever I'm in the apartment :) username: andrewcahoon
Sorry this is so ridiculously long, but I figured I'd talk about everything so that I can have a record for when I want to look back on this in the future and remember everything, too :) Enjoy!
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