Day of the Restaurants, and thus the -itis

As many foods as I have fallen in love with, 1 stands out more than the rest, and I have severely missed it since my arrival in Europe. That godly gift, truly sent to Mankind from the Heavens, is peanut butter. Man, have I missed peanut butter. And not wanting to steal anyone else's food in my apartment, I have been dying to have it since I arrived [although reluctant to purchase such an American product when I could get myself some 'canned gulash']. So, for breakfast, along with 2 bananas, I stole a spoonful of peanut butter and a spoonful of nutella and made an unbelievable sandwich. As divine as this was, let me remind you all that I am consuming is dark bread here. Dark bread is not white, it is not whole wheat, it is not rye, it isn't even pumpernickel. It is plain old dry. And when combined with extra chunky peanut butter, all I can say is that I should have sat down and eaten it instead of taking it to go. I just wish I had had some water to wash it down, because as amazing as it was, I could barely chew yet alone open my mouth for like 20 minutes. Mmmm, delicious.
Anyways, my Art and Architecture class met at 10 am near Prague Castle, so I gave myself 30 minutes to get there [instead of 10 like yesterday]. We first explored the Czech Senate Garden, a magnificent, hidden garden that you would never guess is 15 yards away from a subway stop. One literally walks through a gate, and steps back 400 years into a Renaissance designed garden, filled with supreme statues, a perfect pond, and gorgeous grass. Did I mention there was a peacock prancing around the grass? Yes, an actual peacock, minding its own business, just walking around like all the tourists. I wonder if it felt as out of place as the Italians did.After walking through this garden [supposedly there are many more hidden behind walls in Prague], we went over to Strahovska Zahrada, or the Strahov Monastery. As much as I would have loved to share pictures with you, it costs an extra 50 krown to take pictures within the monastery, so it really wasn't worth it. Had my teacher been able to get us 'back stage passes' (which she actually could have done because an old student of hers became a monk who studies there [and is unfortunately in Italy for the month]), then I might have coughed up the few extra bucks. Oh well, the jist of it is that they had a ton of really old books and an awesome collection of 'stuff.' To elaborate:
-I saw a manuscript from the ninth century. And in case you don't believe that people have gotten smarter, they had barely any vocabulary [even though it was in Latin] and tons of drawings. The 13th century manual was much more intricately designed, with words taking up the whole page and much brighter and more beautiful colors. That summarizes the manuscripts.
-I saw tons of books. Literally, tons. The philosophy library that these monks had has over 60,000 volumes, and the theology libary had over 40,000. They also had 'forbidden books' locked in shelves that were Protestant and Jewish texts that might corrupt regular monks and may therefore only be read by the really high up bald dudes.
-They also preserved nature. As vague as this sounds, imagine a pressed rose or a dead butterfly that has been pinned inside a picture frame. Now imagine 1000 butterflies like that, along with 100+ other types of bugs. Now imagine that for shells, leaves, nests, fruits, animals, fish, and flowers. Just giant cabinets filled with 'nature,' preserved in prestine condition for the past ___ centuries [it varied from 2 to like 8].
I guess I became real exhausted, because we went for Mexican food nearby my apartment after the field trip (I got 'pigs in a blanket,' mini sausages wrapped in fried tortillas) and I got the -ITIS. Because some may not know that slang, it basically means that after eating lunch, I got real lazy and needed a nap. I slept for like 3 hours and have still been tired all night. Dillon and I then went to dinner at our corner restaurant, and I had some great bleu cheese vegetable soup.
Talk about a day of restaurants, because on our walk home, we met Yarda at the base of our apartment where a new Mediterranean restaurant has opened. Since it's been open a week, they had 50% off all drinks tonight, along with their usual belly-dancer Saturdays. Fun yet short night.
And finally, anyone still reading this is probably pretty bored. Not just because you're reading my blog, but this has been the most boring post of possibly the most boring blog you could find. So, since you have enough time to read this, I figured you have enough time to look at pictures too (and probably would like to as well). Thus, my Flikr album has been put up, and it is slowly but surely getting pictures (today's trip to the garden will be added shortly). To get there, please click the following link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bohemianbabble/. Enjoy!