5 Things I Will Miss About Prague

5) Orange Fanta: But Allison you say, isn't there Orange Fanta in America? Yes, but it's a different kind of orange. The American Fanta is more like a traditional orange drink, which doesn't taste much like orange. The orange Fanta over here tastes more like and actual orange. And there aren't the stupid "Wanta Fanta" commercials here.

4) The Daily Routine: By which I mean the routes I take and what I see when I'm traveling to studio. There's the pastry shop near the hostel where I've had to get breakfast a couple of times, the workers repairing the sidewalks, the super-fast communist escalators, the National Museum at the top of Wenceslas square, and the open air market that is half a block away from studio.

3) The Prague Castle: Mainly because how often do you get to say you live in the city that has the largest castle complex in the whole of Europe?

2) Spring: As has been said about NC weather, we have four seasons: Summer, still summer, winter, and almost summer. We get about a week of Spring if we are lucky. However, it is actually Spring here. The weather the past couple of days has been beautiful - warm, sunny, and most everything is blooming. Yesterday Julie and I went to Petrin Hill to take dusk pictures. The weather was cool, the cherry trees and lilac shrubs were in full bloom, and somewhere in the park someone was playing light jazz on a saxophone. It was very relaxing - quite a nice bookend to the day.

1) Public Transportation: Why number one you may ask? Because I can get from the hostel to studio in the mornings in 30 minutes. Because I can go to a movie on a Friday night and know that there is a tram that will arrive at 12:27 am that will drop me off a block away from home. Because of all the people you get to see. Because I can go to the outskirts of Prague on a metro line or a bus, and because I haven't had to buy gas for 3 months. I will certainly miss it.

There are probably others, but I can't think of them at the moment. I just know that I am glad I came to study here.

Picture for Now, List Later

This is me at Divoka Sarka (sounds like shark-a) on top of a big rock. I thought this picture was pretty cool.

5 Things I Won't Miss About Prague

5) The Crowds at the Astronomical Clock - Don't get me wrong, the clock in Old Town Square is very nice. If you go into the tower you get a wonderful view of the city. Every hour the clock does a little "performance" when little models of Christ and the 12 apostles come outside the clock and then circle back in. It's cute, but not all that impressive. Yet every time I've been out to Old Town Square, there is always a huge crowd of people that can start 30 minutes before the hour. It makes getting to destinations like lunch or the Easter Markets difficult.

4) The Poodles in our Hostel - There are some good dogs in our hostel. The poodles are not in that category. They yap very shrilly and like to do so at 6:30 in the morning. Other resentment stems from the workers at the front desk, who call the dogs and whistle at them when the dogs are four feet away and refuse to move.

3) Having to Continuously Watch the Sidewalk - On the subject of dogs, the streets and sidewalks of Prague tend to have reminders that dogs walk them as well as their owners. We always have to be aware of where we are stepping in order not to land in "good luck" as it's come to be called.

2) A Certain Class I Have on Wednesday Afternoons - I don't want to go into too much detail, but I will be super glad when it is over.

1) The Dang Curtains in the Room - There is a particular curtain in our hostel room that does not like to move. In order to close the curtains at night, you have to grab the whole thing and jerk forcefully. There is always a feeling that it is going to be ripped off the runner and that I'm going to end up with 2 meters of fabric in my hands. Julie will attest to this annoyance as well.


There. Tune in next time for things I will miss about Prague.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter to you all :) I decorated the eggs in this picture last Tuesday, and the sheep I thought was cute and bought this week. I figured he's kinda spring-ish.

The only thing I missed about this Easter was sunrise service back home. We always have it at the old church near the cemetery which is next to a cow pasture. The cows often come up and join the service. There's nothing like hearing the resurrection story and when the preacher pauses you hear a very calm "moo" from 50 feet away as if the cow is saying "amen."

Procrastination Queen

Since the beginning of the semester, I have unofficially reserved Fridays as "buffer days" between bouts of being productive. In other words, I don't do much relating to school work. Yesterday the big events of the day were watching an episode of "Jeeves and Wooster," visiting the Easter markets, buying a trdlo ("grilled" pastry with almonds and sugar), and seeing a movie called Vratne Lahve which literally translated is something like "returned bottles," but instead has been given the English title Empties. While the English name is not the best, it was a very enjoyable film. I like my Fridays, it gives a nice break and helps preserve my sanity.

Sadly, the feelings of not wanting to do work can spill over from Friday into Saturday, as is the case this weekend. I think this is best evidenced by the update to the blog instead of being productive. As I'm typing, my base map is sitting beside me with all the notes I've written on it of what needs to change. It's not a pretty sight. Maybe if I remind myself that I get to color with my pretty markers and pencils I'll be able to sit myself down and focus.

Trains to Berlin

Over Palm Sunday weekend our studio traveled to Berlin via railroad. We were blessed with beautiful spring weather - I was able to wear short sleeves, outside! We did a lot of walking, visiting the Sony Center at Potsdamer Platz, the Jewish Museum, Invaliden park, two churches, and various other sites. I saw this bust of Einstein near the Sony Center. He was made entirely of Legos, and his eyes moved. How awesome is that?

Anyway, it was a good trip. On the train ride back to Prague, I was listening to my iPod on shuffle while reading this book called Wanderlust, which is about the history of walking, traveling by foot, and so forth. The song "Walk Like a Man" came on, which I thought was sort of funny, then the following songs played:

"I'm on My Way"
"Hey Jude" (a decoy song)
"Gimme Three Steps"
"On My Feet Again"

I told this to Julie and we concluded that Apple must have the technology to read people's thoughts. I think the iPod realized that I was catching on to its motives and then didn't play a song about walking again for the rest of the trip. I suppose that iBigBrother will be the wave of the future.

Sunny Side Up

We had truly gorgeous weather today - mid 50s and sunny. It was a good day to walk around in outside, which I did since our site is Letna park. I saw a guy who had a wind sail attached to a skateboard and he was riding around on one of the parking lots. It looked like he was having a good time.

Easter is in a couple of weeks and all of Prague is ready. Markets are set up in Old Town Square, Wenceslas Square, and Andel plaza. There are lots of pretty painted eggs for sale, which I may have to look into purchasing. When I was wandering around Wenceslas Square today, I smelled fried pastries and meat on the grill. It was all I could do to resist buying something as I had already had lunch today.

The picture to the right is the "Easter Tree" in Wenceslas Square. I hope those eggs are hollow, because if they fall I bet they could do some damage.