Goddamn goddamn it seems

The past few days have been kind of up-and-down. I lost my camera… it got taken at some point when I was walking around and shopping with Breanne yesterday. So… that’s a big bummer. I’ll be working on getting a new one in the next couple weeks, I guess. I can’t live without documentation!

Classes
So I’ve now had all my classes. Reporting seems like it’s going to be really great. It’s basically the main journalism course, and we will be writing the school’s online newspaper, “Behind the Lennon Wall.” The professor is a really cool guy who knows his stuff about journalism… he used to edit the Prague Post, which is the big English-language newspaper in Prague. I’ve decided to seriously start working toward a career in journalism, so I think this class is going to be a big step toward knowing what on earth I’m doing.
My final class of the week (Wednesday nights!) is East-Central European politics. Our teacher is a young-er Welch guy, and he is awesome. The class seems like it is going to be essentially a complete political history, told from the perspective of those countries caught between Western Europe and Russia. The teacher is really funny, and sounds exactly like Eddie Izzard. He is very enthusiastic. I was pretty exhausted by the time I had the class, but I think it will be a really great chance – studying perspectives on history and politics is going to be really different, with students from all over the world! There are people from Serbia, the Czech Republic, England, Slovakia, Cuba, etc… and only 4 Americans. This is going to make for some very interesting discussions, methinks. Even just the first day got some people really riled up, but our Prof seems like he can handle it, and he doesn’t feel bad telling people when to shut up.

Home Front
Things are going really well in the apartment. I love all my fellow house-peoples and it’s a really chill situation. I’ve been doing a bit of minimalist cooking, and I even did some laundry! One of our program leaders came over and labeled all the dials and buttons on our washing machine, so I went ahead and tried it; and it worked out fine! We had been calling the washing machine “the death trap,” because you have to open the metal spring-loaded grate and stuff your clothes in… and it seems likely that it could get caught or stuck or something. We all lived through it, though. And living without a dryer isn’t too bad.
My roommates are talking about travelling, and I’m thinking about this too. I am concerned about traveling with too many people; there are a lot of plans circulating in our program group for trips with 6-10-more people… and I just don’t want to do that. Big groups just don’t get to do as much… there’s more waiting and decision-making time lag and all… I think I would rather travel alone than with 7 college-age Americans with different interests and goals. Maybe I’m just totally misanthropic, but… it’s how I feel.

The Real Home Front
It has been really good talking to people! I’ve had a chance to chat on the phone with Grace, Mark, Aubrey, and the parents… the phone was a fantastic invention. It’s very real and personal and makes the distance not so far.
That's all for now. Stay in touch!