Morocco summary

So Morocco was chill. Plain and simple. Imagine having no worries (except the small possibility of safety which was immediately disregarded) , no plans, no frets, and nothing aggravating- except people constantly offering you hash. But in a world where everyone nudges you, there are worse things to be offered than hash, and being offered has always bothered me less than being begged.
Tanger really is far from anything special. In fact, it sucks. When we walked in from the port, a cab driver with 2 people in the back seat pulled over to us. Thinking he needed something we approached him, only to learn that he in fact was offering to take us as well... even to as far as Fes (8 hours away). He even said he would take 2 of us to Tanger and come back for the third if we so chose. We needed a 15 euro bus followed by a 35 euro ferry... to get to madrid from casa was only a 25 euro flight plus baggage... logical? Not at all, but it was still necessary to head south. As crummy as Tanger was (imagine an industrial port city with crime and scummy areas), Chaouen and Fes more than made up for it. As Ari describes Chaouen, it is ´literally the chillest place everrr;´ Ari even created a hostelworld account for our hotel so that they could get more business. The food in all of Morocco is truly special- it is hearty but not overly cramming, inexpensive but not shit, and unique from the rest of the world. Although everywhere impersonates Moroccan food, nowhere can truly duplicate it. The people are friendly, but we always had the sense that in Chaouen, they were after something else as well. Whether they were asking for money after our interaction, offering something, or insisting upon our entrance into their shop, Chaouen had an urgent sense of demand from all. Fes, despite being larger (and I would have thought less friendly), was more open and less pushy. Other than Abdul the asshole (he found us a hotel then demanded a lot of money and took money from the hotel man... he also would whisper to all - and I mean ALL - girls on the street that they were beautiful and he wanted to take them to dinner [which surprisingly got 2 separate girls to wait like 5 minutes for him to come back for them]), people were great. Most mistook us for Berbers because we bargained so much, and only a few mistook me for being Muslim because of my lack of shaving (and my styling my facial hair in the islam0-beard fashion).
The thing that truly impressed me most about Morocco was the children. It is incredible how a whole group of people - and I mean everyone no matter what age - can be taught to offer any service for any form of money. Whether it was 2 10 year old shepherds climbing down a mountain right after us who offered to show us the best path down, or a 4 year old in the street, or any older man with hash, or any younger man who could find us the best hotel, everyone was insistant upon this. This was just side babble, however, because this didn´t impress me at all and forced us to just say ´lah´or ´no´ immediately to everyone. The children, on the other hand, will speak moroccan arabic to each other, french to older people, and then start speaking english to us. They would then ask us in italian if we were italian, and then spanish in spanish. Almost every child was fluent in arabic (of course), mostly fluent in english, fluent in french, and in the north (where we were), spanish too. And to think of the education problems American children have with just english.
In Chaouen we also learned of the zaa-zaa drink, an avocado-milk mix with fruits and yogurt in, and through our breakfasts daily at this place, met our Canadian friend Francois who accompanied us throughout Fes. After our departure with him, we sadly also said good-bye to Sam, Ari´s travel buddy for the past 4 months. Now, it is just Ari and myself in the Canary Islands, hoping to indulge in tons of fruit, sun, and watersports.

So Sweet it is to be without Worries

So Spain is fantastic. Plain and simple. My travels have been slow and steady, yet exciting and intriguing. In general, however, Spain is quite similar to most of Western Europe. Although the culture shifts from spot to spot, general trends underlie and emphasize its wonders. The food isn´t that fantastic, although everyone thinks its wonderful because they love the concept of tapas. For those who don´t know, all that means is that they give you a small portion of something, usually something far from fantastic. My first experience with tapas was watching the Barca game in a bar, ordering a hambuergeusa tapas, and receiving a bun fit for a half pounder filled with a burger that couldn´t stuff a White Castle box. Quite disappointing, although it wasn´t horrific. So the food is slightly inferior to most of Europe´s, save the Czechs, but the culture more than makes up for it.
In American night clubs, there is often free entrance before 11. In Spain, I have seen time and time again free entrance before 2, discounted drinks before 330, and regular entrance after that. People go out until 7 or even 9 on weekends, nap, pretend to work (Im still confused about this part), take their siesta, and then have a 9pm dinner. Its intense and relaxing, a traditionally conflicting pair which has made me love Spain even more.
The ability to have no set plans, the luxury to not know or care what comes next, makes me extremely jealous of Ari and Sam for having an extra 3 months of said paradise. We literally decided on a Friday evening to fly to Malaga instead of Seville, then learned of Dana Bernstein`s whereabouts in Granada. So what came next? We postponed our departure to Morocco (that morning) and headed off to the small town with a mandatory Tapas law.
[By mandatory law, I mean that whenever you order any drink at a bar or restaurant, they must offer to serve you tapas, even though you are permitted to turn them down.]
I think the only place I like more than Spain, in general, is the more specific Southern Spain. Life is even more relaxed, both for us travellers without an agenda and for them locals who pretend to work, and more enjoyable it appears. Granted that inflation is almost 13%, but they all enjoy how they go about their days, slowly, lazily, patiently, and most importantly, happily.
So time runs slowly, but simultaneously, it speeds through our days here. Our only plan was that we just purchased tickets to Paradise... literally. Jan27 we will arrive in the Canary Islands, and for anyone who doesn´t know where or what they are, check out wikipedia (even you Uncle Gary) and learn about Heaven on Earth. As far as other decisions go, I haven´t really made any, which is a small issue for post-April life. And by issue, all I mean is time that needs to be spent best, and with too many options, I have to put my finger down on any one thing. If you want to let me procrastinate even more, just distract me with another suggestion because it will be an idea in my head before you know it.

Part 2

So the semester has finished, the family has left, and part 2 has begun. What is part 2? It´s great, it´s relaxing, and it is still abroad, just totally different. I have moved out of Pod Karlovem 12, my beloved and cozy little flat for the past 4 months, and into my backpack. Of course there was the small intermission in which I lived in real nice hotels with the family, but that has disappeared too. So the executive summary (since the last post) first:
School ended, we partied a lot, I moved out. Ari and Sam have had fun in Prague, the family enjoyed touring us around, we had Chinese food on Christmas, then we went to Budapest then to Krakow. On the Warsaw-Krakow leg of the flight, Sam got really sick and needed oxygen at 10000m. We think he is OK, and a real, Western doctor diagnosed him with the same thing as the cooky, Polish doctor: stress (post-plane reaction). The Polish guy´s diagnosis did include all of the following: you are weak, will not have a good life, you are fragile, you are feminine, you have thin skin. Nowhere above did I include Sam´s story because he didn´t care for it. But when did we get the western doctor´s similar opinion? In Brussels, which comes now.
After a lovely evening at Babylon for the New Years, the fam departed for home, soon to be followed by our departure for Brussels. The SkyEurope flight was great, and we had 36 hours to do every touristy thing possible (and yes we did). We had waffles 4 times (and although the marginal returns diminished, when chocolate was added, the new good was far superior to even the first of the waffles), saw the mannequin pisse (who is absolutely hilarious because he is less than a foot tall and nobody realizes that beforehand), saw a protest outside of the EU buildings (Iranians PROTESTING Ahmadinajed), went through a museum (of military history which was massive and absolutely sick), and went to Cafe Delirium (world record holding bar for most beers: 2004. we tried about 20 of them). It was real fun, and we got up at 5am for our 9am flight out of Charleroi (the Bronx of Belgium as Guerric says) which is like 2 hours away. Little did Ari and Sam know how amazing RyanAir is.
RyanAir gives away free tickets. They charge you 5 euros a person to book online (and you can´t book in person or over the phone). They charge you 10 euros online to check a bag. The seats are tiny, the lines are long, there is mad chaos, and there is first come first serve seating. If you´re bag doesn´t fit in the box (and they check every bag), you must pay 20 euros to check it. Overall, they suck. The only thing worse is the Charleroi airport. For our flight, I thought there was tinted windows because it was so cloudy out. Visibility had been reduced to under 100m, so all flights were cancelled. Sam ran to the ticket office, was first in line, and was removed by security for being a security threat. 10 minutes later, the man said "I just didn´t know why you were standing here, but everything is good. You may get back in line¨ Since there were 6 flights cancelled, in those 10 minutes, Sam became number 750 in line. It might have been possible for Sam to have stayed in line during this ´security check,´ we aren´t really sure, but since Sam fell in love with the most beautiful Spanish girl that we had ever seen (the we includes Pierre), he waited next to the line not realizing he wasn´t in the line. Unlike everyone else, we had no plans; we decided to get our rebate online and just rebook. Outside, waiting for the hour bus back to Brussels, Sam met Pierre (in case you were confused from the previous sentence), an awesome Belgian who invited us to stay with his family.
Pierre´s family is some of the nicest people ever. Because we spent almost 3 days with them, there is too much to type about it and I am going to request that Ari not post about our lovely RyanAir experiences and just focus on our time with the Silverbergs, primarily their youngest son Guerric, a 20 year old who skipped high school to go to culinary school and cooked and took us around for 2 days once Pierre left for Barcelona (to read about our time with them, here is a link to ari´s blog: www.lifewithari.blogspot.com ). In short, they cooked unbelievably for us, bought us chocolates to bring home, took us out to see the city, took us to Belgian, nontouristy bars, took Sam to a doctor on a Sunday, took Sam to get blood tests on a Monday at 9am, rearranged their house and computer to turn it into a home entertainment system to watch the Big Lebowsky with us (they love it and Sam and Ari hadn´t seen it), and are just awesome.
So we left last night, went to Charleroi, stayed at a Formula1 hotel (which makes best western seem like a hilton), and woke up at 7 for our flight over here. We re-experienced the horrific airport, the horrific airlines, and the horrific people who don´t wait in the pre-formed line, don´t wait until the fasten seatbelt sign is off before they de-board, and don´t have any regard for other people. But you never know; not only were we some of those people, but Pierre was too.

update

finished the semester strong and lost my voice from consuming too much alcohol. still a little hoarse now (a week later) but it's practically gone. being with ari and sam has rocked, and the fam joined up too. we are now in budapest, enjoying the whole shabamm, then off to krakow and back to prague. the fam will be parting from us then, and sam, ari, and i will begin our trip to morocco (via brussels for beer and waffles and spain for not sure what yet)! merry xmas to all, and happy new years too!

Post-Berlin through Czech fina

Alritey, just a very quick update because I feel bad for not doing so in a while but am a little lazy.
Germany was fun, and I have no real desire to return - unless its Christmas time again. For one, Christmas in Berlin is aweseme, even though its Berlin. The wall was pretty strange, especially how there is literally just bricks in the middle of concrete to show you where it was and how it has no non-historical role anymore. From what I remember of about 24 hours in Munich but not at Oktoberfest, Munich was much more modern than Berlin. Although East and West are very integrated, a few areas still display socialist realism [Soviet architecture] and make you feel cold inside. The city has a ton of really high end shopping, something like multiple areas that are like Chicago's mag mile. One experience:
We walked into the Longchamps leather store, and I told the girls I was with that I loved it because they had free cookies on a table. As they laughed at me, a lady walked out and offered me champagne. She came around 15 minutes later with finger food. Not pigs in a blanket finger food, but high end, 5 star catering. Little brioches and miniature fruits/veggies stuffed with cheese. Fantastic. Truly. I then went to the Lacoste store, and then they repeated it. That is why I love Berlin shopping.
I also had Hoffbrau beer again - my favorite from Oktoberfest - the greatest beer in all the world. In Berlin they mix beer and juice to be an interesting but tasty afternoon drink. I had the mango, it was good. I also had a lot of hot wine at the x-mas markets, which is amazing and much better than Czech hot wine. I also had bratwurst, currywurst, and every other imaginable fantastic food, primarily meat. They were all delicious, as were the beers.
As far as social life, my program had a lot of party poopers - as in everyone wanted to stay in on Friday and many people wanteed to on Saturday. We went out friday and met a german pop/rock band named suboptimal who were cool, but weren't performing until we left. We even saw their advertisements in our hotel. Pretty cool.
Friday I had also bought homemade grappa at an x-mas market. This stuff was only 38% and was cherry-enough to be drunk straight. That is until you forget everything that happened. Oops.
Saturday we went to a bar at 4am. There was a 30 minute line, and it turned out to also be a techno rave. There were many stylish boys and a lot of crazy people, 2 things I would have known had it not been my first rave. I ended up sobering up by sitting at a bar and drinking jack, then water, then a lot more jack. When we left at 6am, the line was about 45 minutes long. This club is known to have people party all day Sunday too, as the schedule had DJs playing from midnight through 730pm. Also I learned how hard they party in Berlin via a British girl who told us she had a different agenda than us Americans as she wasn't expecting to go home before 9. Nuts.
I got 2hours of sleep, got woken in my boxers by our tourguide alerting us I had 2 minutes to make the bus, then walked around more. Went to the Holocaust memorial and museum which were both really meaningful and nice. Berlin absolutely despises Nazis, and goth people you would see in other places wearing Nazi swastikas actually wear anti-Nazi stuff in Berlin. WW2 isn't really mentioned in Berlin from what I understood, nor is the H word or N word (and not a black person). We also stopped in Dresden on the way home which is a sick city with crazy mixed architectural styles and another sweet market.
Since then, I had my czech final today which I rocked, partially because the hobbitt checked over my test before I turned it in to make sure I didn't have any real mistakes. I'm also trying to cook as little as possible and have thus not purchased any groceries in over a week. Laundry has turned into the same situation and is pretty bad, especially since I'm working out in a gym now. I hadn't realized how much I miss lifting until here, where I go to a gym run by the ex-Mr. Europe and 6th place Mr. World. I'll see them in about an hour, and most of the people reading this in under 2 weeks.

Seeing Family

So I pretty much forgot that I even had this blog because I haven't posted in so long... I really haven't had much to say and haven't done too much, but I guess I should update anyways. After pseudo-Thanksgiving dinner we had a very nice regular thanksgiving. Pseudo consisted of about 9 people, almost all from my apartment building; the real dinner consisted of about 15-20 people of whom I think I knew about 7 before dinner (and only 3 actually well). I missed class Thanksgiving morning in a show of patriotism, but primarily because I didn't get home until about 830 am (class starts at 830). Unfortunately we couldn't get a real turkey on T-day, but the chicken was real good as was all the rest of the food (again). I also got to see Jon while he was in Prague Wednesday night, then again on Friday when we saw Body of Lies (a great movie I will add). Saturday we went to dinner at La Cantina, arguably the best Mexican food in Prague - although the one a few blocks from my house is pretty dank too - and had a ton to drink with our fantastic food. We followed that up with a ton to drink later on too. I went over to Joey's dorms on Sunday and said good bye to Jon, then hung out for a little and picked up my new IPOD touch which Jon had brought over. He also brought 2 books with him from the fam, one of which I'm half done with and enjoying a fiction novel from 1988 that deals quite close with what is occurring now in our financial markets.
As far as school goes, I just learned that I have a 10 page essay due for one class, so I'll have to keep procrastinating for a while before even thinking about starting. I'm actually sitting in the class that that paper was assigned for, not paying attention like the other 8 people here (half the class). I also received 'extra credit' work for having too many absences in Czech. To counter this, I blamed them on being Jewish (I missed 2 classes for Rosh Hashana that they never excused, and complained about the unfair severity of this; I then told them I missed 3 classes - not 2 - for High Holidays). I also had to write 3 75 word essays in Czech last night because I have avoided turning them in for the past 2 weeks (just as I have done with the extra work assignment). This also paired with my Czech immersion presentation today. I have actually done more work for Czech in the past week than all semester, and my teacher unfortunately has noticed. Although the immersion project was fine, she decided to rail me with 5 questions in Czech (so I of course didn't understand) in class after my presentation. I think she is taking this out on everyone too, so it's not too terrible, although it sure is far from 'good' or even 'fine.'
I went to dinner last night with Joey again because Uncle David just got to town, and he'll be staying here through Sunday. Hopefully I'll see him again tonight because if not, I won't see him until Allison's Bat-Mitzvah. Uncle David also brought me 6 books from my dad, which I carried arouond until 130 am since I didn't go home until then. After dinner we walked around Old Town Square, saw the real life Disneyworld Castle at nighttime (truly beautiful since most haven't seen it), and the decorated Christmas tree with some of the coolest lighting ever seen on an x-mas tree. Afterwards we went to a tobacco and liquor store which had some awesome Absinth, and then to a dessert shop which made their own, unbelievably fantastic, gelato. It was quite a fun night.
This morning after Czech class I went to a gym for the first time all semester. Despite doing yoga on average twice a week, and working out on my own in my apartment for pretty much the first half of the semester, I have yet to have gone to a gym. K&K gym is where most of the guys who have worked out at all go, so I decided to stop by. It is owned by a former Mr. Europe bodybuilder, who since he no longer takes steroids just looks like a short, jacked - yet normally fit not outrageously - man. I rode a bike and lifted which felt great; I don't think I've really lifted for 3-4 months if not 6-8. I'm looking forward to not being able to lift my arms tomorrow, even though I stretched out a little afterwards.
And finally, I am off to Germany tomorrow! Our program has an optional trip to Berlin, which I got for 25% off because I didn't originally purchase the trip on time (with a terrible exchange rate). We leave at 815am, so I have told Robert it is his responsibility to wake me (in addition to 2 or 3 other people in our building to make sure we get there on time). He luckily agreed, and I am real excited for whatever may happen this evening and then on my trip.
PS: Since the only music I really have yet is the GirlTalk CD and requiem for a dream remix, I have listened to these NON-STOP for like 4 days now. Someone is giving me music later today.
PPS: I thought I should leave with a quote from Robert, about Robert. "Good thing we are going home soon 'cause I'm almost out of ketchup." Robert loves Heinz ketchup, and I had thought that he just brought his own from home in case they didn't sell it here. It turns out he doesn't even want to buy Heinz here because they may use different ingredients and he doesn't know what he would do if that was the case.

Amsterdam => pseudo-Thanksgiving

So in case you haven't noticed by now, posts are slowing up. It's not so much that less is happening (although life in general has seemed to slow down some), but more so that I am getting bored constantly typing on this site and would rather (when on my computer) spend time watching TV, reading, chatting, and reading the news. Also, things such as 'crack addicts' and 'funny looking dogs' and 'strange czech ways' are no longer as interesting to be mentioned. So since the posts are slowing down, let's go back in time to try to catch up.
Last Thursday was a fun night of drinking with an early wake up, although not nearly as early as I had expected; I thus had a little bit of rushing to do when I got up. Once I settled down however, most of Friday was spent relaxing. I landed in Amsterdam, found Joey's friends, and walked around the city Friday night. It turns out that many coffee shops require official ID (to prove that you're 18), and since 2 of us didn't have passports or driver's licenses, we had to curtail our night. We waited a while at the train station since trains only come once an hour and we were staying at the airport Crowne Plaza (about a 30 minute ride from the central station). Saturday morning we woke up and walked around for a while. I believe that we walked through the Liedseplein and possibly over to the Rembrantsplein. We also took a tram by the flower market, which I would presume was pretty dead because of the freezing temperature and grueling wind. Or maybe it was the snow in addition to that- I'm not really sure. We also went to the Van Gogh museum which was really neat and had lots of pretty pictures. I wish I could give a better description but I've never been good at understanding art, and my decent writing and poor vocabulary has decreased to poor writing and crap vocabulary.
My favorite part of Amsterdam was probably the food. Amsterdam was designed to have multiple coffee shops on each street, and between them are a galore of bakeries, fast food restaurants, and more. I still didn't get to try the two famous foods in Amsterdam: Rijsttafel and French fries with mayo. Nonetheless, I had more than my fair share of delicious food at all hours of the day. I guess it's a reason to go back to Amsterdam. And because I want to check out some crazy nightclubs and more cool historic areas that I didn't get to see. I think it would be a fair statement to say that I experienced and saw everything while seeing and experiencing nothing there.
Joey and Jon arrived Saturday night and we hung out all night and then all day Sunday. It was fun; lots of fun. But still, I had to leave Sunday night for my 9pm flight. It was quite hard to make it to the airport, although I did, even though I made it there a little too early (about an hour too much time there). I got home at midnight and skipped Czech class the following morning at 830. I turned in my Czech final excursion presentation that Tuesday (it was due last Thursday, but my teacher [who I will add told me it was fine] said I had to redue it for Monday because it wasn't good enough), which was a high quality pseudo-interview with my yoga instructor. Yesterday I went shopping for Thanksgiving-esque products such as a frozen turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce (ocean spray baby, unfortunately already made), sweet potatoes, regular potatoes, string beans, and fruit. YuM. They unfortunately do not sell any form of pumpkin pie mix in this country. Once I leave class in 15 minutes I will be going home to cook our pseudo-Thanksgiving meal for tonight.
[We decided to move up Thanksgiving tonight because 1 person will be out of the country tomorrow and 2 will be going to dinner with family members/friends' families. Thus tonight should be the 3 CIEE flats in our apartment, and I think we will have about 8 people enjoying our feast. I'm still not sure what I will be doing tomorrow. I was invited to join a few people at eating out (expats style), but at the same time I don't think Robert will be able to eat a non-hotdog/french fries or non-quesadilla meal if I don't assist. I have also been informed that a ton of people plan on ditching school for Thanksgiving in a show of patriotism, and I'm pretty sure that I'll be joining (although my absences are increasing), so I might spend tomorrow cooking a duck!]

Sweden deux

I flew back on ryan air which is the cheapest airlines in Europe... they actually have some free tickets with just tax. I landed, got dinner (finally cheap food), and went back late. Today I have done nothing worth mentioning. So, I am back, settled in, have done laundry, have a new coat scarf and gloves, and actually did some work. Below are a few of the pictures from Sweden before my camera died... enjoy!the boat hostel

the super popular puffy coatchanging of the guards... the bandthe symbolic horse of Stockholmthe Washington monument?EURASMUS guyslike are you serious? a Rosie's sign in our bar...my actual new coat

Feels like Heaven! (aka Sweden)

Well, more like Sweden, but I think it may be as close to heaven as possible on Earth. And I'm not just referring to its geographic location being quite far north; everyone is stylish, super attractive, and super friendly. Oh, and they have no poor people, slums, or ugly people (at least in Stockholm). Just 'people' (upper class people pay such high taxes they are practically as wealthy as the middle class), tons of shopping, and good taste. This will be quite a long post because I have a lot to say about Sweden and haven't posted since last Thursday, and have nothing else to do for my entire hour and a half psych class.
Down sides of Sweden (since every place has them): super high prices, strange and strict alcohol laws and age restrictions. It was quite hard for me to switch from paying under a euro for a beer in Prague to going to a restaurant in Stockholm and paying 5 euros for the same quantity (of shittier beer). And it's even more expensive at bars and clubs.
Fashion: all are extremely stylish and all wear gloves and scarves. Super big, puffy, expedition-style jackets (many with fur) have become quite trendy, even in blue. The rest of coats are black or charcoal or MAYBE grey. Women wear ankle shin or knee high boots with tights. Men have sweaters too and just stylish bottoms of some sort.
Food: hamburgers and kebabs are quite popular, as are brats and french hot dogs (a hot dog stuffed into a french baguette instead of in a bun) as street food. Salmon in cream sauces, pickled herring - especially fried yet served cold, sushi, and chokoladballs (served in cafes, a ball of a fudge/flourless chocolate cake mix with sprinkles on top that is unfathomable). MEATBALLS are extremely rare and not popular.
Anyways I found possibly the most amazing bar in the world. 1 that advertises over 400 types of single malt whisky. 1 that advertises over 100 types of beer. 1 that DOESN'T advertise an age restriction of 23. I went in to get lunch there one day but it was too expensive, so I figured I'd come back that evening, until the bouncer told me you have to be 23. They want to maintain a certain 'class' in their bar, and the leather interior and homely cigar bar feeling require 'mature' people not drunk tourists. It was fine since there was a cool and quite similar bar next door. This was Saturday night, and later in the evening (which I will further discuss) I tried getting into clubs, only be told at the first one "you're not 27" and the next "you're not 25."
So I think my last post was from the Copenhagen airport which had atrocious internet and one of the nicest malls I've been in. I got into Stockholm and immediately realized I should have done SOME prep before going, which I plan on doing for the rest of my travels. Why did I feel stupid for doing nothing? I had no knowledge of their currency's value. I had no idea where in relation to Stockholm I was. I had no idea how to get to Stockholm. I had no idea what to do in Stockholm. Anyways I found the high speed train which took me at 200kph for 20 minutes to get to Stockholm (and that's the close airport). I got in, found my hostel - which I will add was a boat - and unpacked and got a beer. The rest of my 'dorm' came in later and we hung out. In addition to the strange Canadian couple (or brother/sister), there was a French girl from Switzerland and 5 EURASMUS students. EURASMUS is the standardized study abroad for European university students. I hung out with these 5 guys all night and then all day Friday. Brief summaries:
Dominic- Swiss-german, 26 years old, stereotypical of my view of Switzerland. Quite mature despite vomitting on his walk home the following morning from a Finish girl's place. Had an awesome scarf that inspired me to buy a similar style one (I was planning on getting some scarf).
Stephan- Serbian born but French and currently living in Amsterdam. Gave me an awesome list of things to do and places to go next weekend while I'm there. 20 years old, and thinks the French are the best. Can you guess his beliefs about Israel and the US? Duh... totally stereotypical. We had some good conversations about politics while strolling through the streets drunkenly.
Anders- 22 year old Dane, very clean cut and again stereotypical of my belief of Denmark. Very clean cut appearance, in charge of organizing his friends and getting them throughout the city.
David- 22 year old Spaniard, quite Euro looking (just like the rest) and not as good of English, although he seemed as if he was learning a lot of it quite quickly. Very nice and stylish, a short guy who looked nasty at soccer and loved to bounce to the techno beat.
Richard- 24 year old Dutchman, nicknamed "Akon" by his friends simply because he was the only black man among them. Kept claiming he was on his second drink, although he definitely confused 'second drink' with 'second second drink,' second, second second drink' and so on. Later pulled the same miscommunication with 'third' and 'fourth' drinks. Decided not to come to the club with us, and puked in a bag and in the Swiss girl's shoes. Awesome guy who convinced me of the need for gloves.

We went to a great club and I only wish I could have spent more time with them, as well as more time with EURASMUS students in general. We stayed at the club until about 530 Friday morning, and left when most people did. Upon waking up, I ate breakfast, stole them some deli meat and cheese, then packed. I was quite surprised about the amount of time they spent preparing to depart. They make sure everything looks proper when they leave, including using a lint roller on their coats, making sure their scarfs were on properly, and having their hair exactly as desired. Quite fashionable.
We found a place that offered a great lunch special of all you could eat salad and then a massive plate of salmon and potatoes in a sauce plus a coke for 8 euros. The amount of butter, mayo, and hollandaise in the sauce however was too much for me and plagued me all weekend (I actually just wanted to know how lucky Ari and Sam were to try escholar). Since it was raining hard and quite foggy all day, it wasn't really worth walking around, so we hung out in the restaurant just talking for a few hours after that. I went with them to the central terminal, said good bye, then checked into my new hostel. The new hostel had free internet as well, super comfy beds (much nicer than the bed in my flat), super clean floors, cool people, ergonomic shower heads, and a real nice kitchen with free coffee, tea, pasta, and whatever food other people did not finish (somewhat of a 'leave your leftovers for the next guests' thing).
Friday night I met up with the American girls from my Prague program, but called it an early night just after midnight... at the time it seemed like a great idea because I had gone to bed at 6,2, and 4 am's respectively the 3 previous nights.
Saturday morning I went out to the Old Town and walked around in the lovely cloudy weather. At noon I headed over to the Royal Palace to watch the changing of the guard (it's technically a changing of the sentry because they haven't needed official guards since the 1960s). After a fantastic performance (highlights include the rap dance-move 'brush the dirt off your shoulder' which they founded over 300 years ago and 1 drummer dropping a drumstick accidentally). I'll post pictures from this on a follow up post because I haven't transferred them to my computer and because this is a long post.
The American girls met me after the changing of the guard, and we walked to the city hall and then the central terminal. Stockholm's central station is directly in its downtown district and surrounded by society. The buses, trains, and metros all run through it, and there are many restaurants, cafes, and bars in it too. Above ground, there are department stores (Aholem's City and H&M of course), and tons of nice restaurants, cafes, shops, and people walking around.
I forgot to mention that Thursday night I had to check 3 coats because I've been wearing 2 sweatshirts and my rainjacket/skijacket mix. Not only is this annoying, but it is surprisingly not warm, or at least in Sweden. While walking around I found a store that had men's coats for 50%, so upon looking and trying them on, with the girls' advice, I picked out a nice winter coat for 65 usd. Not too bad, and since mom's been bugging me for 4 months now to get one, I thought no time like the present.
We also went to H&M where I got a super warm big scarf that can wrap around you like a mummy, or just keep your neck awesome. In clubs here, people - including Dominic - keep their scarves on despite no jacket and even sometimes just wearing it with a T-shirt. Quite European. There are TONS of H&Ms in Stockholm by the way... I found 3 within 100 meters, and over 20 in total. They are fairly cheap by US standards, especially department stores, with nice shirts for under 35 usd. Aholem's City is the nicer Swedish department store, and more in line with Macy's in regards to price and style. I also went to a store on Saturday called "Stylish Mann" or "dress mann" or "something mann" where i bought a pair of nice gloves. I wish I had gone to Aholem's City first because they did have nicer gloves for practically the same price, even though I really like the ones I got.
Saturday night consisted of being turned down at many bars and clubs, but we did get into 1 that was quite fun. I met a Swedish guy named Steward, although that's not how you spell his name. 3 things that display how awesome he was- he was always dancing and upbeat and partying, no matter what was on or who he was near, and somehow either knew or met every girl in site. He also asked why a drink wasn't in my hand, then poured half his beer down my throat (and a 1/4 of that 1/2 down my shirt), then felt bad about spilling on me and thus bought me another beer. He also told me he was only staying out until 3 because he had work AT 7am.
Anyways that bar/club was a lot of fun and we made the mistake of not listening to him and going to one of his suggestions earlier in the night, because by the time I tried getting into clubs, 1 girl was too tired and the other needed to walk her home (bitches), leaving me alone and not able to get into a club. Even with them we would have had to wait over 30 minutes. It was only 2 am, and some clubs close at 3, others at 5. I ended up walking back to the metro, meeting a Swedish girl (she was actually a brunette, but brunette swedes are not that rare but have a mysterious attraction to them) and having a nice 30 or so minute chat with her.
I actually met those girls at a bar, and brought 5 Americans studying in Western Europe with me. For most of the evening the girls were being quite no-fun, so I ended up spending more time with these other Americans. The following morning, the guy sleeping below me, Tony from Texas, told me he was going on a boat tour of the Archipelagos for twenty euros (that's a lot of T's). I decided to join him, and even though we were meeting 2 of his friends at the port, it is massive and 3 blocks from the central terminal. Unfortunately the terminal is massive and at 1150 we were 9 blocks from the port. The cab driver offered us a deal of 15 euros to get there, despite telling us it would only take 8 by the meter. "Business" he called it. We sprinted around the port for a while and finally found his friend waiting with us at the entrance to the boat, which took off 30 seconds after we got on. With no good seats left, we moved a table in front of a walkway (half blocking the walkway and half blocking the bathrooms) for a better view, and after an hour of this traffic jam, the boatsmen requested we move into the restaurant, an area we had been told we weren't allowed in. It was quite a nice upgrade.
This boat trip might have made my vacation by the way, and not just because I had a nice new coat. IT SNOWED! The gorgeous snow as we were boating around some of the 24000 islands was truly great, especially since we could go outside or in if we liked. Tony spent much of the 3 hours outside (he was wearing 3 shirts, 2 sweatshirts, and a snowboarding parka), while the 2 girls spent much of the time indoors (peacoats are nice but get wet quick). I alternated, and wished the whole time I had a camera which I accidentally left on all night. After our return, Karen and Brooke went to meet up with an old au'pere, while Tony and I met other Barca kids at the iceskating rink. Despite not having gone in almost 10 years and never having been good and having skates a size small, I was decent - in part because I stayed in control and didn't let myself fall. After enjoying this rink, I think they may make a movie one day about Swedish rival Asian ice skating gangs that have half dance off - half speed skate races with tackling. They were great skaters and scared the shit out of me. We later took a random bus from a random stop to a random stop, got off, and walked around until we found a restaurant. Since everyone speaks Swedish and English, many of the menus actually offer both, but we wandered onto a very small, very homely place with a menu of 3 appetizers, 6 main courses, and 2 desserts that had no English. It was delicious, and again, I love Swedish salmon.
I went to bed early so that I could wake up early and get in a full day before my flight home. I went to the Vasa museum for an hour and a half on Monday which was amazing. The Vasa was a ship that sunk in 1628, but because of the less salient salty water in the Stockholm port, the wood didn't decay, and in 1961, they pulled up the ship. 95% of the ship in the museum is original, and they have exhibits to show other stuff about life back then which was awesome. I even learned that in the 1600s, Swedish king Gustavus Adolphus wanted to display the awesomeness of the Swedes and how they would WIN IN STYLE by the intricacies of the boat and the extravagancies of the colors and the elaborateness of the statues (they have maintained this 'in style' idea... even some Parisians I met thought the Swedes to be stylish). After not being able to take pictures of this great ship (update: I just learned minutes ago upon going through my bag that I actually brought my charger with me and forgot I did this, thus not charging my camera despite being able to), I headed off to the indoor market. I was told by Americans that after searching for hours for meatballs, this was the only place they could find that had them. I walked in, and saw 3-4 very nice cafes, 2-3 very nice restaurants, and like 15-20 very nice vendors. The delis, fish stands, vegetable huts, and etc. seemed to all be fresher and nicer than most places in the states and reminded me of the upscale grocery stores (1 in NY and 1 in Chicago) that my mom took me to. Anyways none of the restaurants had meatballs, so I went to the deli, asked for their meatball lunch - which was a few massive scoops of mashed potatoes with like 10 meatballs that were smothered in some clamber sauce (might have just been clam or some Swedish word I didn't know) then heated up for me - and enjoyed my delicious and filling yet surprisingly cheap lunch outside in the square. I then wanted to by a terrorist scarf (the square ones with like a checkered pattern in different colors) from a street vendor for cheap, but realized I only had enough money to try a chokoladball so I got one and left for the airport (I arrived with 1 swedish krown left... pretty good).
My next post will be a few sentences about since returning to Prague and then a few photos for all of your viewing experience.

I've been messing around the last few days, doing little, thinking much. Not even much reading, but some pretty dank cooking including curry veggie couscous and chicken with potatoes and veggies. Done a fair share of walking and went to yoga Monday, although not going tonight because it's Dillon's birthday and not only am I joining him for dinner, but we've got to clean [just food off the floor] before people come over. Can't really think of anything that's actually happened, other than receiving sick grades and going to the zoo on Sunday. Took about 75 pictures there because there are tons of crazy animals; Forbes ranked Prague's zoo as higher than the San Diego (7th v 9th in the world). So check some goofy animals:









Im currently in the Danish airport which is unbelievably nice, and has a massive mall in with stores such as bvlgari, porsche design, hugo boss, etc. It's an absolutely gorgeous mall and airport, and I hope Sweden is as nice as I expect Copenhagen to be. Last night was Dillon's birthday so we had a few people over to party, and what was supposed to be a pregame became a party with us never leaving. Anyways I haven't used a dial up connection in forever, and by that I mean years definitely, and I think it's really weird such a nice airport has such shitty internet. It hsa taken me 15 of my 30 minutes just to load the 3 sites I tried accessing... this, facebook, and gmail. So on that note, I leave you hopefully enjoying my goofy animals in addition to the very many pictures on Flickr should you choose to go over there too.

pre-Transmission

Wednesday was quite refreshing... there truly is nothing like amazing weather to vacation you from horrific temperatures. As previously stated, it's not the rain that's real annoying, nor is it the temperature; it's the lack of sun. We go days on end without sunlight, living in a grey environment similar to 1950s television. On Wednesday, it was 65 degrees without a cloud in the sky. It was beautiful, and I had two outclasses to get to enjoy it outside. It was so tempting to not go to my econ class, and so boringly awful to go. When I walked into class, it was absolutely beautiful, and when I exited, the sun had set. Talk about a waste of wonder, a poor choice of class time sure screwed us all over. I went to yoga and then went out to 2 girls' birthday parties. It was fun, and when we decided to leave, half of us got stuck in the elevator. As I raced down the stairs and knocked on the elevator door, I probably should have realized that the 3 knock backs in the same spot meant they had stopped moving. After ten minutes of waiting, I decided it was worth trying to open the door, which got the Czech kids pretty pissed and could have gotten us in a lot of trouble. I at least thought it was a better idea than trying to jump down a floor, which everyone inside the elevator was attempting (they were 3/4 of the way between the 3 and 4 floors). When they finally got out, we shared a laugh as they shared some swear words, and everyone headed in different directions. Instead of getting to walk home with the girl in my building, we took care of her friend, which eventually led to me actually carrying her over my shoulder to get her home. It happens to the best of us, and they luckily are enjoying Amsterdam as I type instead of this horrific grey.
Thursday was back to the usual crud weather, and upon waking up from my post-Czech class nap, I felt fantastic. Czech was awful, and holding my hovering head just inches above the desktop made my situation apparent to not just myself. That day was pretty slow too, but at least ended in humor. We ended up going to club Radost, a few blocks from our apartment, after enjoying the Woodstock environment of my new favorite bar. With $1.10 beers, $1.40 becherovka shots, $1.75 shots of everything else, and $2.20 shots of absynthe or any whiskey, the Woodstock bar across the street is now for me what Chucky Cheese is to Michael Jackson. One side note about Woodstock is that it is quite different from most Czech bars in a form of its pricing. In the CR, if you want a rum and coke, you pay 50 crowns for the rum (or whatever it costs) and then 75 krowns for the coke (again event specific). A gin and tonic, for example, may often be 35 krowns for the shot of gin, and then whatever the tonic costs on top of that. At Woodstock, the 35 krown gin gets translated into a 39 krown gin and tonic drink. Weird, but still in pattern with other drinks. The whiskey coke, however, defies traditional economics. For 45 krowns, they will serve you a shot of any whiskey they have. For 39 krown, however, they will make you the whiskey coke drink. If you figure out the economics of this, please explain it to me, and it can't just be because there is that much greater demand for the shot.
I ran into a yoga friend at Radost while Dillon ran into what may have been Russian mafia guys who wanted to kill him. I can't confirm the first part because they were punks, but their friend that I ended up speaking to definitely did not seem to be the same Rhode Island guido-esque persona. I came home and went to my room to see where Dillon was (we both close the door before either of us go to sleep, and our door was open), and did not find him in bed. I then went to brush my teeth and heard snoring in the shower. Probably beats my sleeping on the trams I venture. I also woke up the following morning with a box of raspberries nearby, uneaten yet open with juice dripped on my nightstand. My keys were still in the door, and we shared a lot of laughs Friday morning. Friday afternoon consisted of me wanting to fly a kite, but shitty weather kept me inside. We then went to see the new Bond movie which opened early here (not as early as London) because it was filmed nearby, and I was slightly disappointed yet still enjoyed it enough to think the experience worthwhile. In Czech theatres you have assigned seating by the way, even if it's not enforced or upheld. They are very nice theatres, and the mall we walked through was really cool. It was nice going to a mall on a Friday afternoon/evening to see the crowd that was going there, and it was really bumping. I even saw a bookstore that had a small english section! I had unfortunately read all of the books that I wanted, most of them in the past 6 months, and right before leaving unhappy I moved a book on the bottom shelf and saw a Penguin classic hidden behind. I picked up Khalid Gibran's The Prophet and took it home with me. Amazon's comments and reviews make it seem like I made a wise choice. I stayed in last night to prepare for tonight, which pictures and Dillon's descriptions predict to be epic.
Today I had wanted to go to the zoo, but more rain sort of made that hope disappear. Well, it's more of being postponed because I still hope to go there, a magical place whose descriptions have consisted of nothing short of awesome. Having stayed in all day, I think it's sort of necessary to get out, which is perfect because tonight is Transmission 2008, a massive techno party. Before I give what I'm told it will be, I should mention my experimental lunch that I just finished. I had purchased canned herring to see what Czech people eat. It came in a paprika/oil dressing, almost like a light barbeque sauce of pepper. I added it to some Czech fake-Ramen, and 'endulged' in an interesting delicatessen that may need a more accurate description. Anyways, the entire O2 arena, the size of the United Center, is turned into a massive stage, and from 9pm until 7am, the whole stadium screams as the CR hosts Central Europe's largest techno party and hottest DJs. I will bring a camera (which is allowed in concerts here even though it's not permitted in castles) and make sure not to lose it, also hopefully taking pictures of the grandiosity of this event: it's going to be a thunderdome

Overall updates

This will be quick, but I figured I should give a small update since Saturday. Saturday night I debated going out, and went to 2 bars within 200 meters with Dillon; we lightly drank and by the second place decided neither of us wanted to go out. I think a small factor was that Mortal Kombat, the horrific classic from the mid-to-late nineties was on, and because we were pretty tired from Thursday and Friday. I stayed in and read, watched TV, and discussed utter randomness with Dillon which was pretty fun.
I think I forgot to mention in my last post that our roommate Robert came out with us Thursday. Robert is from Cornell and takes between 5 and 7 classes a semester, which shocks me because at Emory you need special permission from the Dean to even be allowed to take 5 real classes. Anyways he told us that he drank once at a frat party freshman year but didn't really even get buzzed, so this was pretty monumental when he was drinking with us Thursday. It was even more awesome when he told us he wanted to go out with us on Friday. Granted he didn't go in on the 6 liters for 10usd and didn't get nearly as drunk, but we were proud. Saturday he even wanted to go out again, and although we were up when he came back, he was still the party animal of the weekend. Last night he went out [I think just to see a movie] but didn't get back until I was almost a sleep. I think we created a monster.
Having not done anything on Saturday, I decided to at least leave the apartment on Sunday. Dillon, an avid rock climber back at school, has been going about once a week or so to climb, and I had asked if he would show me how this weekend. It was really difficult, and although I wasn't the absolute worst climber at this gym-bar, I was towards the bottom. And by gym-bar, I mean this place is a bar which turned its basement into a bouldering room. And by I mean towards the bottom, I mean other than the 5 and 7 year old girls whose dad was pushing them on the rope, and the 8 year old boy who was running around as his dad climbed, I was the next worst. Pretty embarassing but I didn't really care; it wasn't as embarassing as Haloween and was a ton of fun. It's really hard by the way, and I have far from an ideal climbers body. Although I have worked on forearm strength by doing pullups off of a 4 x 8 slab of wood, I still don't have nearly the amount of ridiculous finger strength as these guys who are absolutely nuts.
As far as my midterms went, I got an A on my historical development of architecture BS writeup, an A- on my psych test/paper which is pass/fail, and a 93 on my econ exam. I unfortunately don't know if this is out of 100 or 120 points, and since I've only heard of one person getting above a 100 (even though there were 120 possible points), I sure hope he makes it out of 100. My last midterm I find out tomorrow.
Sunday night I bought tickets to Stockholm for our 'long' weekend in 2 weeks. I leave Thursday morning and come back Monday evening which will be awesome and I'm only missing 1 class to do so which is fine, especially since I haven't missed any real classes for this class. Another awesome factor is when I get back that Monday night, I have 3 days of classes before jetting off to Amsterdam with Joey and his friends and Jon who is coming to Europe soon. I also signed up for CIEE's trip to Berlin in December which should be real awesome. I have also decided that I finally need to buy an Ipod and steal people's music, even though Dillon showed me this great streaming site called last.fm. Try it it's awesome. So I've been researching which one I want, going to yoga, and reading more which has been nice.
I guess the final part of what's happened since my last post has been the official temporary culmination of my studies at Emory. I faxed in a temporary leave of absence form and got back a response today, meaning that next semester I will not be an enrolled student. Instead, I plan on meeting up with Ari when he and Sam come to Europe. As of now, we plan on splitting the 6 weeks that we have here between Spain and Morocco, and hopefully catching the FC Barcelona home game on January 4th. I don't really know how this will affect my attire for Allison's Bat-Mitzvah because I don't have any formal clothes and won't be coming back to the states until February 10th, but I'm sure we'll figure that out. Once back in Chicago, I am going to be working for Ari's ex-boss, our current neighbor, and my favorite right wing pastor, Chicago's self-proclaimed and crowned king of surplus, Dave Auerbach. Hopefully on weekends I'll get to visit a few friends at big10s too. Anyways, as of now, in early April I plan on heading off to Israel and staying there for the summer. I am ooking into internships and will soon be looking at jobs too while there, and then I'll be home for a little before back to Emory. This actually doesn't mess up my schedule and helps it out, so long as I still finish in 3 academic semesters. Oh yea, and I still will get into the Econ Honors Program if I respond to their email next semester. So, I'm excited to try a new type of foreign living, different from what is now, and what will be with Ari, and what may be sometime after that.

PS: it's scary how little time I have left this semester, and I haven't even learned Czech yet!

Doing Nothing to Prepare for or Celebrate Midterms

It's been a pretty slow last couple of days. I was very busy preparing for midterms, and by preparing I mean not doing much. It really wasn't my fault that I didn't study; I blame Noah for sending me a 200 level online riddle. Despite procrastinating so much, I was quite efficient in my studying. I planned it out so that the 45 minutes before my first midterm I would study for that test; after I finished, I'd have just over an hour to study for my next test, and having finished that test quickly, I studied for my final exam in class. It was the perfect study plan, and allowed me to bust my brain on a riddle while watching TV too. My Art and Architecture test was slightly tricky, but it's still architecture so it really wasn't that bad, and my interior design architecture exam was literally one picture. It was actually pretty sweet; identify whichever piece of furniture was in my photo, and BS about it for as long as you want. I had a very gorgeous Renaissance commode, and all I had to do was write whatever I want - including the word 'perhaps' in many situations helped too. My economics exam was fine, neither good nor bad, and I had prepared just enough to have learned a pretty basic history of the EU. The one problem with the Europeans and their damn governments is they all decide to call everything by the same names. Examples include the Council of Europe, the European Council (EC), the European Committee (EC), the European Comission (EC), the European Economic Community (EEC). They always have to brag about their Europeanness, and love the letter 'C' for some stupid reason. At least you can't go wrong by guessing EC for any answer.
I guess the real exciting news of the week has been the unbelievable weather. There hasn't been a cloud in the sky and I've been wearing shorts everyday without a jacket since Monday. It's truly been amazing... in my apartment. Outside, it's been a little different. From Monday evening until Thursday morning, it did not stop raining. It did often only drizzle, which was a nice relief from the often downpour, but it sucked the whole time. The only thing that made the rain worse was the 15 knot winds that carried the water drops. Actually, the other thing that was pretty miserable was the 35 degree weather which paired with the gruesome winds. They were pretty brutal and prevented pretty much anything from happening. Especially since it now gets dark at 4:30... that also puts a damper on any motivational drive. So basically it's been a slow week because the weather sucks.
On the contrary, there have been some fun moments. For example, when I was walking to class on Thursday, I got to see real live crackhead gypsies again! Yea the most I've ever seen congregating has been like 3, but on Thursday, I got to see 6 of them shooting up together. It was pretty sweet... and by sweet I mean I felt real awkward and tried walking quicker by them. MVP of the shoot-up sesh goes to the homeless guy who was passed out on the bench, and needed his heroine so badly that he had a friend inject him while he just laid there. He seemed pretty warm and friendly, just like the rest of them. The only thought that passed through my head at the time, other than 'get the hell out of here quickly,' was 'please don't take your needle and stab me with it and give me the HIV.' I should have realized the economic infeasability of that, because without enough money to buy lots of needles (and thus sharing them) they would never waste their precious life medicine.
We decided to go shopping yesterday for Halloween outfits, that was fun. Right next to the main train station there is a second hand clothing store that I guess is really popular with the Czech people because it is massive. It reminded me of the Japanese in Hawaii at an Armani Exchange sale, or a bunch of pidgeons plucking at a fountain. Unlike Americans, the Czechs choose not to organize their stuff. This means the only separation was 'kids clothes' and 'grown ups clothes.' Everything is either thrown in a pile, or hanging from a rack, and its not separated by color, size, gender, or even price (even though they claim it is). You can buy leather coats for 90 krown, and fur ones for 120 (approximately 20 krown to the dollar right now) which is pretty nice, and you can find some great Cosby sweaters. My 3 ideas, with help from Dillon, were Bill Cosby, Russian, or nuts. Dillon and another guy advised against dressing as a Russian for political reasons, so I think I may do that sometime in the future. I got bored looking at 1970s Soviet styled sweaters, so I decided to go with being absolutely ridiculous. We found what had to have been a women's small tank top that said 'everybody need somebody,' and what better way to start off looking totally ridiculous than with something like that. Although I was scared I would rip it when I got it on, it was surprisingly more comfortable than the previous, similar styled top. This one was more stretchy since it was all cotton, and didn't even cut off feeling to my arms, a definite plus. It was a little awkward after trying it on when a woman walked up to me and asked where she knew me from, only to realize that she is one of the yoga instructors at my studio here. Oh well, at least she thought it was downright hilarious, and I think she was also laughing at Dillon who was rolling on the floor dying after she asked me that question.
Having trouble finding any acceptable bottoms, someone grabbed me a pair of jorts which were, especially upon confirmation with some girls, definitely made for women. Women's jorts are even less comfortable than mens, and are fit differently so that they are quite painful. After a little bit of stretching them out, I finally got into them when we got home. Robert was appalled at our costumes: me in the most ridiculous outfit ever, and Dillon wearing super short neopreme briefs and tassles around his arms and legs only (he was a wrestler). When we walked into the restaurant in our building for drinks, every single person in the place stopped talking, looked at us, and starting laughing hysterically... and they couldn't even see my shirt at first. At the next bar, we only got the silence, until some random Czech guy jumped up and started screaming about how he loves Haloween and we are the only ones who celebrate it well. I ended up waiting outside of club and looking to my left last night, and realized "your an American, and not on my program, but are from Emory!" It was actually a guy that I was real good friends with freshman year, and I had no idea he was studying in Vienna. I joined his friends and went into a hotel, down a few flights of stairs, and walked into a massive underground club/bar. Again I go into a random building and find a huge underground complex: it's like this city has a whole city underneath it.
Today has been the most productive day possibly since I got here: I watched South Park, the Office, and typed this. Dillon claims this happened to him last year after Haloween too, and after reflection, I think I was the same way. The grocery a block away is waay too far from our couches, so we have both sat watching TV, slightly hungry, for the past few hours, too lazy to do anything. Everyone has those days.

PS: It's now 6pm and has been dark for almost 2 hours. Without a clock or watch, you might think it was 10pm outside.

PPS: I'm real glad there are no pictures from last night to post, although I'm sort of pissed that a girl did snap a picture of us.

Long Weekend

Me Serving at the Pilsner factory.
Me Sharing a brew and a sausage with a plastic guy at the factory.

So Thursday was the last day of classes until this coming Wednesday when I'll be having the rest of my midterms. Most of the people went out of town this weekend, and although I was considering doing such, I decided to stay around here instead. I had planned on going to 2 breweries, maybe even 3, but relaxation weighed in and I only ended up going to Plzen. I'll discuss that later though. Anyways since I didn't end up doing a brewery tour, I figured I should at least try lots of new beers, and so far, I have had 14 new types of beer in the past few days (meaning I have had at least 7 liters of beer, even though the full amount is closer to 20-25 since Thursday). I got these at Tesco, which is basically a Walmart with a giant Sunset underneath it. It was my first time there and was really fun. I had so many choices, which I'm really not used to at stores here, that it took me forever to decide what I wanted. All of the new Czech beers I have had are delicious, although some not as fantastic as the rest. Honorable mentions: Bernard, Zlaty Bazant, and Svijany. Least preferential of the newbies: Zlatopromen and Samson.[this picture is actually from the Pilsner factory that shows how many varieties have been produced by SAB, the comglomerate company that owns the brewery, since 1999. It just reminds me of my choices at Tesco]
So Thursday night I went to dinner with Joey and his mom and grandmother because they were visiting for the weekend. We ate at the fantastic buffet at the Intercontinental, and were pleasantly pleased. I then just went and hung out at the dorms with Joe. Casual night but fun nonetheless.
Friday and Saturday days were both filled with working out, decent cooking, and walking around Prague. On Saturday, I even found avocadoes from Israel and felt obliged to buy them; they were really good of course. Back to Friday, however. For dinner, I tried going with some guys to 'U Medvidku,' a restaurant/hotel/bar/micro-brewery that I found online that is supposedly rated as one of the top places in Prague. They have like 20 types of Czech beer and make there own 20% beer, which we were really excited for; that is, until we saw we wouldn't be able to eat there. We ended up going next door where there was an opening if we were able to finish our dinners in under 45 minutes [lunches in the CR take usually at least an hour 15]. All this meant was that we got served really quickly, which included my delicious bread bowl beef gulash that reminded me of Panera. We met up at M1, a real expensive and nice club in Prague. It was very difficult to find and I wish I had known how expensive (so I could drink more before), but it was ana absolute rage. I even saw Lawrence and his basketball teammates there, who were celebrating after their victory earlier in the night. Saturday night was far from the same extent of celebration unfortunately. Mom, please skip the next paragraph.

[I'm serious mom]
The night started off with me leaving my wallet on my desk before going out to Kross Club. Kross Club was much better than it had been last time (see previous post about really weird Czech people with lots of metal in their bodies), and I hung out with a few Emory people. I feel that I should mention now that to get there, although a tram/metro pass is necessary, it must not be showed every time. This meant that I just assumed that my pass was in my wallet in my pocket. Google Maps claims that Kross Club is 5km north of me, but that is going on the highway, not taking trams and metroes (that don't take straight paths always). I somehow managed to buy 2 drinks at Kross Club, which further convinced me that I had my wallet with me. I am almost positive that a friend bought me one drink, and I have no idea about the other. 15 minutes later, I noticed that I did not have my wallet and absolutely freaked out. I asked the bartenders, all of my friends, random Czech people, and even searched the bathroom- despite not having used it. I was a mess, and unfortunately at that moment, began to feel sick too.
Knowing that I was beyond my limit, I figured it was a good idea to leave, which was definitely the right decision. Everyone else was going to another club in another 30 minutes, so I just parted from them. At this point I called home to cancel my cards and thus prevent any credit card fraud. I then got on a night tram, all of which come twice an hour, and headed to Lazarska, the hub of all night trams that would connect me home. As hard as the ride was, I made sure to stay awake and make it home. Unfortunately, 2 stops before Lazarska, I faded. I faded hard and I faded fast, and only when I got jabbed in the ribs by a policeman's flashlight did I resume my rememberance of the remainder of the night. Long story short from here, I made it home, despite being very far away when that happened, despite it being 35 degrees, despite not having a wallet. I then found my wallet, called my parents again and luckily still have working cards, and even saw my friends again when I re-made it to Lazarska (that's how long it took me to get there).(gate at Plzen factory] Saturday of course led to a long and hard Sunday wakeup, which was accomplished without much ease. I hurried over to the train station and met up with my friends on the train so that we could head over to Plzen! Plzen is the beer capital of the CR, and the CR has the highest per capita consumption of alcohol in the world. So basically, Plzen is Mecca. Plzen is also the founding city of the Pilsen style of beer, which includes Pilsner-Urquell (the original), Gambrinus, Kozel, and a few more less known companies. When we got there, we immediately headed over to the brewery, despite not meaning to. I think the alcohol in my blood was attracted to the alcohol in the factory, similar to a compasses magnetic polarization, and pointed us straight there. We then walked over to a restaurant that served the best Pilsner I've ever had and some ridiculously good meat (I've stopped trying to figure out what I'm eating if it doesn't say chicken in it).After a fantastic meal, we walked around the city. Highlights include St. Bartolemu's Cathedral, the tallest in the CR. At 102 meters, it took forever to reach the top. I am uploading pictures right now for you guys to see on flickr, but the steps were usually about a quarter the width of my shoe's length, and the stairs were slanted at an angle steeper than a ladder against a wall. It was also really tiring after the 10th floor, which is when the climb got most difficult. At times I was on all fours - despite climbing vertical - and other times I had to bend down so much that my backpack was hitting the ceiling. I also had to climb over beams, around columns, and under ledges, all the while barely having a handrail as we ascended into the sky. At the top, it was really pretty and you could see well past the city limits, in addition to the big square at the base of the cathedral and the nice synagogue a few blocks away. Most of the ladders were also just wide enough for 1 person by the way, so coming back down was like going through a one way tunnel and required lots of waiting. I was real impressed, and it was the perfect thing to do before going to the brewery (possibly the only thing too). The brewery tour was really cool. Some things to note: barley has a terrible texture, not much flavor, but luckily no after taste. Malt is at least edible [made from the barley], and hops are attrotious. Not only do they have a horrific taste, they have a lingering aftertaste that kept reminding me that I needed to wash the flavor out of my mouth a half hour later. Pilsner also uses the same methods that they did 150 years ago, minus no longer using massive oak barrels. They only use those for the beer on tour, which tastes better than Pilsner draft or bottled. I am really not that much of a fan of Pilsner, especially when compared economically and gastronomically to other Czech beers, but the Pilsner in Plzen is definitely better. And it definitely wasn't mental, because everyone agreed with me, and it looks different too.
So I read the whole train back - a new book, The Guide, which is my first Indian novel - and ate KFC for the first time here. I have no idea why the Czechs love it so much, but they do, and it is pretty good over here. It's not too expensive and they are great with chicken in this country. I then went back to the dorms and hung out with Joey and friends nearby. Props to dad for meeting the Israeli ambassador at AIPAC, which I was informed of at this point.
Today has been a real lazy day, and the fact that the sky matches my walls, making it difficult to see where the windows actually are, makes it even less likely that I did anything. With a long, intoxicated lifestyle all weekend, I decided to spend all day lazying and lamping. I have thus watched a ton of TV today and am going to yoga soon. Hopefully the included pictures help a little, but the rest are on flickr as previously stated. The video below is me walking around the top of the Cathedral, so you can see how small the 4th largest city in the CR, Plzen, really is.

PS: since returning from yoga, I have seen 2 absolutely out of place objects. The first was a Rolls Royce driving down the street. I think it was lost on its way to Luxembourg or Germany or something, because finding an Audi or BMW is rare enough. The second was a unicycler. Not just any unicycler, but a guy on a mountain-uni (I'm not sure if that's the proper name for a unicycle with mountain tires) at 730pm in a pitch black park. I'm not sure which I should have thought to be more out of place.

I'm in Love with a Hobbit

Whether you've been to Prague or are planning on it, you either have or will notice - subconsciously or consciously - that none of the people, whether students are workers, ever work or study. It's quite the weird phenomenon, and I've heard other students on my program comment on it as well. I do have proof of this, both for supposed students and whimsical workers. As I have previously stated, my study center is in the historic district of Vysehrad, and being a historic district, there are always tours flocking around; one day, I even helped a British coupe find their way from Old Town to Vysehrad because I was on my way to class. Anyways, in addition to tourists buzzing around Vysehrad, there are class tours there every day too. I'm not talking about once a week one high school sends their juniors to finally see a historic area or something. I'm referring to every single day of the school week, whether rain or shine, there are between 20 and 100 students, somewhere between 1st and 12th grade, cramming into the ancient walls of this rebuilt neo-Baroque fortress. I think this is ample proof that students don't go to school. As far as older people, there are ALWAYS people on the trams. I can understand people going in the morning to work, and people at midday going to lunch, and of course people coming home from work in the evening. But why would some one be dressed up at 2pm? Or what about 1030? Every day, every tram? That can't be a coincidence. And I don't just mean 1 or 2 people on the trams. When we are working on conditioning in architecture class on Wednesdays (sprinting to a tram), we can often barely fit onto a tram because they are so crowded. Perhaps people just enjoy dressing up and pretending to go to work. If not, I have no idea what they are doing, unless they are getting paid to ride the trams constantly.
Anyways, I had 2 midterms today, in Czech and Psychoanalysis. I figured my Czech teacher had told us everything that would be on the exam, and anything she hadn't, she would give us the answer in class. I also figured that my AP Psych professor had prepared me well enough sophomore year of high school to pass a test about Freud. Surprisingly, I was right on both.
I guess our teacher felt bad after only giving my class 15 minutes of review yesterday because she gave her following class the full 50 minutes to go over exam material. Luckily, roommate Robert is in that room, so he gave me everything that she failed to forward to us. Since some of our examples were the exact same, and she had read off a piece of paper for both, we figured - correctly - that she was reading off of the test. After 15 minutes of review last night, and 15 minutes of review on my walk to class, I was incredibly prepared surprisingly: especially since I suck at Czech. The answers that I was iffy about were checked over by my teacher, and she either told me what to change them to, or informed me they were correct. An example of this: each question of section 1 had a sentence which needed a past or present verb filled in the blank from 5 choices of verbs. I had narrowed 1 down to 3 choices, and wrote what I thought to be the best answer. I then asked what 1 of the other 2 possible verbs meant, and she responded, "don't worry about that, you're answers right." I also had her check over my short essay which was quite helpful, and review it before turning it in. In case you think she just glimpses over each persons test upon submitting the exam, you were wrong. The guy who turned his test in before me say for a minute while she looked at it, then she passed it back to him when she found it a mistake. I did great.
I then went to lunch and spent 17 krown on a bowl of soup [the dollar is up to 19.5 krown!!!] and 75 krown on a plate of mystery rolled meat [i think pork wrapped around cooked salami, onion, and garlic], potato dumplings, and a delicious portion of my favorite, kraut. For an additional 21 krown, I got a 1/2 liter of beer. I then walked back to the study center, and instead of studying for my next midterm, researched Czech recipes, breweries around the country, and meaningless trivia. With 15 minutes left before the exam, I opened my notes and studied. Since I only need a 60 to pass the class, I figured if I got over a 50 on this test I could pull it up. My guess: at least a 75 if not an 80, or possibly even a 90 [if he can't read my writing and figures the answers are right]. It was amazing. I then proceeded to ignore everything my teacher said as I further researched breweries and talked to my mom online. Luckily, here is my professor's quote from after his lecture: "i hope youre not too confused by all this, but it doesn't really matter because we aren't going to discuss it much or use it at all and I don't think I'm going to quiz you on it. so if you're just a little confused it's still OK." After that, he started discussing something that I actually knew and he asked me questions for 5 minutes so I got mad participation points before running off home and talking to the parents. I have since done an hour of exercise which killed me [partially the intensity and partially the lack of previous exercise] that even included 3 sets of 8 pullups on a 4x8 piece of wood - a new record. I am about to shower and go meet Joey and Aunt Julie for dinner at the Intercontinental, and I feel really bad that I can't shave before seeing them, but I just don't have enough time. Hopefully they'll forgive me.

Stir Fry Helps, Make Weekend Plans

I think I've already mentioned that Czech babies are among the cutest - if not the absolute cutest - in the world. Part of it is that it's autumn so all of their parents dress them up in bundles of mini-clothes which makes them look even cuter. I'm pretty sure that I've also mentioned that Czech babies are a dying breed; they are being replaced by dogs. Although you may expect the dogs to be some of the cutest too, they are far from it. In fact yesterday I was almost attacked by a German Shepherd. Also, in order to replace childhood obesity, the Czechs have invested in canine obesity, which is somewhat funny and grotesque simultaneously: of course without beauty. However, similar to with their children, the Czechs dress up their dogs. Now, I know we have all laughed upon seeing a dog in clothes, but how many people have seen dogs in socks? How about dogs in T-shirts when its warm out? What about dogs in sweaters when its chilly? I still think the best thing I've seen thus far has been a man walking his dog in the rain. He of course had an umbrella, and his dog of course had a rain coat. That's right; not a poncho, not a rain slicker, but an actual rain jacket. It was hilarious.
So today I was going to go to lunch at an underground cafeteria [similar to where the free breakfasts are held]. These are just random buildings with small signs on them, usually one word with a 'u' in front of them that most non-Czechs can't find. This is also known as real Czech fast food, and is pretty cheap and very good. Being 12:30, there was a line up the stairs and out the door, so I went home and made a sandwich, an acceptable yet unfortunate runner up.
My first out class of the day, Art and Architecture, consisted of walking around Vysehrad. Vysehrad is the name of the castle that the CIEE study center is located in, as well as a few other Charles University buildings. It is an old castle, and according to myth, the origins from pre-historic times of the Czech state. I also live a mere 15 minute walk from it. Despite all that, CIEE thought it essential to tour us around all of Prague except Vysehrad. It's a pretty cool castle and we walked through the pitch black hidden passages between the external wall of the fortress and the external wall of the compound [a 4 foot wide passage between the 2]. Afterwards, my other outclass [as much as class 4 days a week sucks, having most of my Wednesdays be walk around Prague is pretty nice, and I only have 1 class plus Czech on TTH] went to the Prague Museum of Art. Although not as awesome as the Prague Museum of Decorative Art [pretty much interior design], it was still interesting and had some real sweet things that would look great in our living room. Favorite item: the first lazyboy. Being smarter than the current company, this lazyboy had no need to recline; instead it was already in a reclined position. Imagine a supersoft lazyboy that never needs to become a couch... sweet. It also has massive armrests that could balance a tray if you wanted to eat while watching a game. What a life.
Similar to my mom at 3am every night, in class everyday while not doing anything I search for travel fares. It is farely cheap to get around most of Europe, and I was thus planning on going through Bratislava for a day before hitting either Vienna or Budapest. I have since learned that my mom wants to go to Budapest, and that I don't really want to spend a ton of time in Vienna yet, so I have saught other plans. I also still know people going there in case I want to meet up half way through our long upcoming weekend [Monday Tuesday off]. In place, I think I am going to be going on a beer tour of the Czech Republic!
CR has the highest consumption of beer per capita in the world. At 160 litres per person per year, most people here have at least a beer a day (the number of people used includes children, so adults, including 90 year old women, drink more than this). To meet the people's demands, the Czech Republic has literally hundreds if not thousands of breweries. Although they only have like 10 major breweries, they also have like 100 minor ones, which includes micro-breweries, independent breweries, brewery hotels, and more. Then there are individual brewers, restaurants, and in-home breweries, which basically means I'd have a real busy weekend trying to get everywhere. One special part of the weekend: the trip to the beer spa! Supposedly a great hangover cure (we will be going after attending the Pilsner factory), the Chodovar brewery and beer spa gives you beer while bathing you in it. I'm excited. These places are both in western Bohemia, so hopefully we'll get to experience northern or eastern as well, and probably not southern Bohemia or any of Moravia. Who knows how much time we'll have, but I'll give it my best shot. If the tour isn't working out as planned, I may head over to Vienna for Monday Tuesday, or maybe Budapest for Sunday-Tuesday. I should still be able to go buy a hotel for a nickel in Bratislava, especially since its a 2 day 1 night trip on a 20 USD 3hour train.
So after searching for breweries in my Econ class, I tried taking notes and reading the WSJ, the combination of which put me to sleep [in the first row of course]; luckily I have perfected my class sleeping to eliminate the head bob, keep the eyes seemingly-squinted, and even wake up soon after. I used to be able to take notes while being asleep, but it's been a while since freshman year.
I came home and made the best stir fry to date. Today's tricks: cooking everything together, using Uncle Ben's instant Jasmine rice, adding frozen vegetables, a little more chicken than usual, and a lot more soy sauce than usual. Quite tasty. In addition, I have been maintaining my quite unhealthy average of 1 small onion and 2 cloves of garlic daily. I have also read quite a bit more, and am actually going to do some studying for my 2 midterms tomorrow. Not too much of course, but probably about a half hour in total should suffice. As I type, Jarda is having 'game night' with a few of his buddies. Tonight they are playing some weird Czech version of monopoly that consists of being farmers not real estate moguls, but I guess every culture has its quirks. And now, its on to Gossip Girl!