Bonus!

We went to a Christmas concert at the national theater today.

I saw "Twilight", that new vampire high-school drama movie, on Friday. It was dramatic, and the cinematography was fun. Playful. Not so typical. I don't know if I'd recommend the film but it certainly did benefit from the big screen.

And.. here is a fun picture from Saturday:

dumpster diving at the Moser Glassworks

Karlovy Vary/ Carlsbad

We took a program day trip to Carlsbad, the Czech Republic's biggest and most famous spa city, located about 2 hours out of Prague. There was snow cover - something we probably won't get in Prague because of the river. Only 7 girls from our program and Marta, a leader, went on the trip - and what a fantastic day it turned out to be.

We started at the Moser Glass museum. Moser is something Czechs are very proud of. The museum had lots of glass unmarked in cases, and then videos playing on the wall, one in each room. We had to wait for the video to get to the beginning countdown and then push a button on our audioguide, in order to get any information. But it was cool information.
For example, there were the award-winning giant snifters, a set of glasses designed by a Moser business man that won an award at some exhibition in Paris. Each glass has a name/personality: Fellow, Long Face, Moon Face, Stout Gentleman and Big Bertha. Apparently, there are clubs and such devoted to the giant snifters, or there were a century ago. That was exciting.

the giant snifters

Moser also designed a "cup of the allies" during WWII. It was a single cup out of a single piece of glass, but it is separated inside, so each of the leaders, Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin, could drink their national drink out of the same cup. Very symbolic. (What is the national drink of the USA?)
After the museum, we visited the glassworks, where we saw artists at work making vases and giant snifters and tumblers and such. Unlike what I assume would happen in the states, we pretty much could walk around the factory however we wanted, and we weren't really warned about the ovens or bright fires. Also, there were people smoking inside and the glassblowers were drinking beer. It's laid-back here. In some ways.

the Moser glassworks

On our way out, we ran into a big dumpster filled with discarded glass, on its way to recycling. The girls got really excited and took little pieces (I was not as enthused, and as a result was one of the very few who did not sustain glass-dumpster-related injuries). After a while, our tour guide came back out of the museum and gave us each a glass pig, and told us she was worried about us cutting ourselves so we should stop... :)

Next stop: Becherovka Museum. Becherovka is a Czech liquor, prioduced only in Carlsbad, distinctive for its spicy taste. As our tour guide told us, it is 30% alcohol, 10% sugar and contains over 20 herbs and spices. It was created by an apothecary and is supposed to have medicinal qualities - a lot of Czech women and men, old and young, drink a little Becherovka every day.
As we toured the museum, a guide told us about the history of the Becher family and showed us the barrels that Becherovka is kept in. Along the walls of the museum and throughout the factory there is 9 kilometers of pipe through which Becherovka travels during its various phases of production. Becherovka is exported, our guide told us, and showed us a map, but 80% of the liquor produced is consumed in the Czech Republic.

Na Zdravi! to your health!

At the end of the tour there was a documentary and tasting. The tasting was neat - there are specially made little porcelain cups for Becherovka and three types; lemon, original, and a cordial. The documentary was amazing. It was narrated by a time-traveling scientist, Dr. Christian Fobrig, who apparently was friends with all the generations of the Becher family, from 1807 through the empires and the wars and everything. He was amused when troops on the front at WWI requested the liquor to be sent to the front, and was worried when, under communism, the family tried to bury the secret recipe. Thrill!

We then took a walk down to the mineral springs. There is a special glass you buy, and then walk along to many different fountains along a promenade and sample and sip the different mineral waters. The waters are warm and bitter, and no one really liked them... but I tried - they are supposed to be healthy!

me and my little mineral water glass - it is porcelain and has a straw-handle

one of the mineral fountains

We got back to Prague at about 6:30 - unfortunately 30 minutes too late to see the Christmas tree lighting on old town square. But we walked through and saw cute families and children and smelled the delicious cinnamon and gingerbread being sold at the stands.
Now Breanne and I are going to watch the West Wing.

There are some more pictures in the album here:

Karlovy Vary/Carlsbad

Helsinki & I don't want to travel no more

Helsinki was cool! I got to see Dad perform with his turntable group, which was awesome as always. He is so hip! We took a day trip via ferry to Estonia - no big - which was old and clean and had one of those cool onion-dome churches. Over the weekend, I ate elk, wild boar, reindeer, and bear. And turnips, and sweet onion jelly. They do creative things with meats and tubers up in the north, instead of just doing predictable things with fruits, fish, and spices like they do in the warmer regions. Interesting, right?
Mark is visiting now - a friend from school - and he came to class with me last night and enjoyed it.
My reporting teacher has nearly convinced me that financial journalism is a good way to get into journalism - plus you need to know German (I do!), and they always need people, and economics are important (though I haven't survived intro to Econ yet...)
Mark & I will go to Berlin this weekend, after which I am never ever traveling again. I am so tired, just exhausted from all the sightseeing and moving around. It is overwhelming. My friends in my program here, my roommates and everyone, are feeling the same way. I just want to chill and focus on my studies (which are getting cooler and cooler by the minute - lots of neat projects coming up!).

Helsinki

I am leaving for Finland in 20 minutes, to see dad - who is doing seminars and such for Berklee up there. I will be back Monday.

this post is worth 161,000 words

I'm tired! But here are the pictures from Greece and Dad's visit!

What people do in Greece

Dad's Visit

Home from Greece

Hi people!
I am back from Greece. I will post pictures and stories Monday... my dad is visiting this weekend :)
Keep it real and if you are Tami & Chris OMG BABY SOON

Krumlov & Hlobuka

We took a program trip yesterday. We saw some castles. It was neat.
Here are some pictures:

Home from Poland

Hi y'all!
We went to Krakow this weekend. It was really fun, and I have lots of pictures and lots of stories to tell. Unfortunately... I also have a lot of homework... but here are the highlights!
We took a sleeper train:
We saw a DaVinci painting at a museum: We saw an amazing gothic cathedral - inside was all painted up:
We saw another cathedral, where the pope used to chill: We saw and purchased some cool Polish crafts from the famous "Cloth Hall"
We sampled local cuisine:
And we enjoyed clear and beautiful weather the whole time.

Here is a link to the album with the rest of my pictures from this weekend:

Krakow

Or just watch the (captioned!) slideshow below:

so vikend?

It was a long and tiring weekend - we went out at night, saw the debate live at 3am, and we went to Karlstein castle to a wine festival/renaissance fair the next day.... we saw Leonard Cohen that night... we walked, we danced, we adventured.



Highlights summary:
- going dancing Friday night (and enjoying it), and then at 3 am going to an English bookstore/bar to watch the Presidential debate
- music at the festival (including some Abba karaoke) - we heard them singing a folk song we learned in Czech class! Holka Modrooka.....
- going to the Leonard Cohen concert: 7th row on the floor, chilling in the green room, meeting the backup singers with awesome accents, taking a little tour of the awesome hotel they were staying in.

- meeting Breanne's friend Rosie, who came to visit as she is studying abroad in Salzburg - she was really fun!
- going back to our usual coffee shop haunt - Bohemia Bagel - last night, and finding my way without my glasses (but I cleaned my room today, so I found them for class).
- today in Media & Democracy our guest speaker was the Czech equivalent of the NPR Congress reporter... she talked about the nature of reporting for radio, and how hard it is to get the Czech Prime Minister to talk to you :)

The photo album (this time with some videos!) is here: click

So long, farewell, until we meet again...

Even more Eastern

Breanne and I took a short trip to Bratislava this weekend. We went to the ballet, the viticulture museum, the castle... we took in the sights and even experienced the grocery store.

Here is the photo slideshow, of course:

Misses!

Paranoid, Extremely Angry (Dresden was fun!)

We went to Dresden! I purchased a new camera! And we saw many beautiful things. We had a lovely time on Breanne's Birthday weekend in nearby Dresden, Germany. The city is most known because it was destroyed in WWII (see: Slaughter-house 5). But it has been rebuilt quite a bit and is a very nice place to walk around and see the sights.
The city was mainly developed under Augustus the Great and his sons/fathers/family (they were all named Augustus the something, so I'm a bit sketchy on the details), who brought in a bunch of art to the museum and built a bunch of churches and other large buildings.
Here is the comprehensive slideshow:

So.. Germany! Thank goodness. It was great to be somewhere where I understand the language. I could speak to shopkeepers and waiters and all, which made me feel very empowered. However, they were all also eager to speak English. This is so different from Prague; even after we express that we know no Czech, everyone here will keep talking to us in it. Different world.
Germany was also nice for its clean, open, and organized grocery stores and other such accessibility (quote: "This only has two languages on it, and one of them is English!" vs. Prague, where everything is in 5 different Slavic languages).
We stayed in very clean, pleasant, and colorfully painted Hostel Mondpalast, which is located right in the middle of the night-life action.
So, good game, team!
Highlights: re-visiting the Zwinger museum of old masters, to see:
(I also bought a print.)Learning about otherwise smiley and innocent midwestern Ali's eyebrow-raised suspicious face:
Taking pictures with all the many boroque statues:german pastries!!!
And of course... taking pictures with my new camera!
(the color is called "bohemian brown")

Churches with bones, miners

We've finally started traveling!
Yesterday, most of my roommates and I took a day trip to Kutna Hora, a town about 1.5 hours outside of Prague. We took the train, under the direction of Breanne, and despite the fact that no one spoke English and that Czech people are really grumpy, it actually worked!
We arrived at the train station, which was described by our tour books as 'a 40-minute walk out of town'- and then walked to a little suburb of Kutna Hora called Sedlec. Sedlec is the home of "the bone church," a church decorated inside with immense sculptures and such made of human bones. This chandellier, for example, includes every kind of bone that is found in the human body.
So... that was really odd. This church became like this, because the cementary of this church was a very popular place for the rich to be buried. Then the plague came... and just more and more skeletons came to this place. So in the 19th century some artist came in and made all of these decorations and such from bleached bones. Very odd. Oh, Europe. Here's Breanne in front of one of the huge pyramids of bones:
So, yeah. Then we walked to Kutna Hora proper. It was really hot out, so that was a bummer, and I think it was a couple miles away. But we made it, and walked around the town. Kutna Hora was completely abandoned. Apparently on Saturday afternoon, Nothing is open. Stores, bars, restaurants, everything was shut tight, with very few exceptions. It was such a great change from Prague... there were tourists, but so few, we could walk down completely empty streets... it was just relaxing and wonderful. We found a restaurant from my guidebook (go go The Rough Guide to Prague!), and it was fantastic. Here we are:There were quesadillas and crepes and gnocchi, it was delicious. We went around the table and talked about what our parents do for a living, and what we thought each other's parents did for a living. Everyone was surprised that mom is an artist and dad is... whatever dad is... (as usual)... and that was fun.
After lunch, we took a little break in a grassy park in the middle of the city. Kutna Hora is an old, old, town, that was rich several centuries ago when it was primarily a mining town. The town produced silver coins that were used throughout Europe. The town was quite close to Prague and even London in size and wealth for a while in the 14th century, and as a result an enormous gothic cathedral was built there. Now, it's a really little town (20,000 people).
We went to the church (the Cathedral of st Borora)... and it was Amazing. My guidebook called it "arguably the most spectacular and moving ecclesiastical building in central Europe." as far as my experience has shown, I would tend to agree. It.was.huge! 5 or six stories just in this one enormous room- with peaked arches pointing up to morw pointed arches... There were original paintings all over the walls from the 15th century, there were pulpits and statues from every era. 50 feet above the congregation pews, there were 7-foot tall carved wooden statues of the virtues, looking down and reaching out to those sitting below.
Something that particularly struck me about the church was the emphasis on the occupation of the town. Instead of glorifying kings and saints, the church glorified miners - the common people of Kutna Hora. St. Borora (Barbara, maybe?) is the patron saint of miners, and there were paintings and carvings and windows all dedicated to the profession. How very democratic, or something!

After the Church, we wandered the town a bit, stopped at the grocery store, and then walked back to the train station. It was a very, very nice day.

Lots more pictures can be found here: (link)
look! comment on them Or just check them out in the following slideshow...


In other news...
I just made myself some delicious scrambled eggs, and my roommate found some chicken in not-whole-chicken form at the store. Cooking is looking up!

The apartmentmates are, though, preparing a complaint to the program leaders about parts of our accomidation... since we don't have any dishes at all that can go in the oven, we don't even have enough glasses for everyone, they gave us our wrong home address for people to mail us things, etc, etc... There's nothing too troubling, and we're getting by, but there are some things that would be expected (and that other people in our program were provided with), and it's pretty reasonable to bring it up, I think. (Complaining does make me feel sad, though).

Next weekend, we're going to Dresden! I've been there once before and adored the museum. I can't wait to go back and see:Which is huge and captivating, and:Which is probably my favorite painting ever (just look at her apron!)
And all of that reminds me: (link)

Regensburg

I've been spending some time with Karin in Regensburg, where she will go to University next year. Here are some photos:

Neuschwanstein

I got up at 5am today, after getting exactly no sleep last night (worrying about Prague...). Then I got in the car with the Grünbergers.. and woke up at Neuschwanstein!!


Schloss Neuschwanstein (castle new-swan-stone) was built by King Ludwig (Louie) II, from 1869 until his death in 1886. It's totally crazy. He dedicated the castle to Wagner, and all the decorations, the intricate wall paintings, etc, represent one of Wagner's operas. There are also a lot of swans.
Neuschwanstein was one of several castles commissioned by King Ludwig. ´This one was designed by a theatre set designer, though, not an architect, and it kind of shows... the turrets, the fairy tale-ness of it all. And... there is an artificially created cave on the third floor. No lie. It's like, throne room, dining room, bedroom, reading room, dressing room, cave. Cave!
Anyway. Neuschwanstein was never finished. King Ludwig died mysteriously at the age of 40, the day after being told that he had been determined to be crazy and thus unfit to rule (however, he had never been examined...) Construction on the castle halted with his death, and no one lived in it after he did. As a result, the castle was only occupied for about half a year.
So, yeah, I'm a big fan of Neuschwanstein. I think the most exciting part-other than the cave of course- was that the stairs are in the big turret-y things. I love turrets! Ok. Karin says she will get me a castle.

Partyin in Bayern

Things are going great in Bavaria, Germany, where I have been for two days visiting Karin, my exchange partner from summer 2006.
She picked me up real early in the morning in Munich, here are some pictures:


The past two nights, Karin and I have gone to birthday parties for her friends. The parties are really lovely. There are lots of fresh pastries, and people sit around and talk and laugh and courses of food are gradually brought by the host(ess). On Thursday night, it was a rather small party, and we took a little stroll around the neighborhood - it was totally quiet and peaceful and we looked at the stars. Last night, our host showed us pictures from her trip to India, where she was a visiting doctor in a small hospital. Then we went swimming! Super fun.
We also went shopping yesterday in downtown Passau, at H&M, with Karin´s friends Benni & Stefan. I also bought my train ticket to Prague - with Karin´s translating help.
Yes, so.
Karin and I are speaking German to each other, mostly (although the language here is really bavarian dialect - which is like German, but I can´t understand it). It's pretty cool to be in a country where I can understand the language... the signs, the people, all that, makes me feel pretty smart... and pretty worried about Prague... where I don´t know the language at all, despite my attempts at learning...
Today Karin and I are chilling out, since the weather is not very good and we are quite tired.Tomorrow we must wake up very early, to go to the castle Neuschwanstein, a 4-hour drive away. (just because I said I wanted to - Karin is great!)
I had a great time last night talking to the Germans about politics (gasp) and such. It always comes up when you tell people you are studying political science... Yeah, so what´s up with the situation in Russia? And the Germans are watching our election closely - some said that they do not know McCain very well, because a lot of media coverage was devoted to the Hillary/Obama contest.
This reminded me that I´ve been completely out of touch with news since I got here... so I´ve got to go read the news. (Biden, really?)
Servus! (that´s goodbye in Bavarian..)