week 2 is here

Well I have made it through my first full week and weekend in the Czech Republic! This past weekend we went to Prague, which is such a beautiful city! We had a 3 hour train ride before our arrival then headed over to our hostel to get all settled in. As this was my first time in a hostel I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but we stayed in rooms for about 6 or 7 people, and down the hall was bathrooms and a shower room for all the rooms on the floor. If you want an idea of our room, picture Annie, because that's pretty much what it looked like haha.

We walked around the city Friday afternoon and got to see the Astronomical Clock, the Old Town Square, a bunch of really cool looking buildings that I have no idea what they were, Charles Bridge, and the Lennon Wall. The view at the bridge was really pretty, you could see the castle and the whole surrounding area, and later we went in a tower there which had the most beautiful view of the city I saw while we were there. As a Beatles fan, I also really liked the Lennon Wall. During the communist reign here, which only ended 15-20 years ago, people graffitied the wall in honor of Lennon because his music gave them hope. Pretty cool. Later that evening while walking through the Old Square there was an orchestra playing the Beatles music, and that was just awesome, because who would have thought you'd ever hear that from an orchestra? Beautiful.

Saturday we went to the Prague Castle and Cathedral, which I must say was actually not that impressive. The castle just looked like a big building, not like what one usually pictures when you think of a castle. But the cathedral was gorgeous! I got kicked out of one of them though, because I followed a couple people from my group thinking we were going to another room I hadn't seen yet, and when I realized we were heading outside I turned around and the man said "no, no" and shut the door in my face. How rude! I later learned that the view from a tower in that cathedral was gorgeous, so unfortunately I missed out on that. After our group split we wandered around and guess what we found? Starbucks! It was huge, they had a bunch of rooms and then a whole downstairs area to enjoy coffee! It was great. We then wandered around to do some shopping, but unfortunately were unable to locate the 2 shops we had seen before. That night a few of us went looking for a jazz club we had seen, and although we didn't find it we found another one, so it was ok!

Sunday we went to the place I was most excited about - the Jewish Quarters and Old Jewish cemetary. One of the synagog's had the names of all the Jewish people from Czech who were victims of the holocost painted on its walls, that was really neat. Then we went to the cemetary. I believe it's about a square block and there are some 20,000 people buried there, because the Jews were only allowed to be in a certain part of town. Being there reminded me of going to the concentration camp in Austria when I was in high school. It's so hard to imagine the millions of people who were victims simply because they were Jews. It's just heartbreaking. We're going to Auswitz concentration camp in Poland in April, and I'm looking forward to that. After the Jewish Quarters we had a little free time then our 3 hour train back to Olomouc, which I slept most of the way as I did not get much sleep over the weekend.

This week we started our regular lectures, today was about the influence of the Czech media.. it was alright, but I hope they will get a little more interesting. Oh, and Happy St. Patrick's day to you all! St. Patrick's day was actually on Saturday here, because apparently the pope has power to change the holiday, which he did.. which is weird. But I wore green today anyway. And also took a 4 and a half hour nap. And had some falafle for dinner. What a great day, huh?

Oh, in reference to my last e-mail about the old ladies with crazy colored hair - I know what it's all about. During the communist reign, which hasn't been over too terribly long, women were not allowed to dye their hair at all, so now that they are able to they kinda go a little dye happy. But there's the 411 on that.

OK, Peace, love, and the luck of the Irish!!