Dobra Kava = good coffee

More more more!
I only have tonight, and then I'm done with classes for the week, Again. On Monday, we had a visiting speaker in my Media & Democracy class: Iva Drapalova, who was the AP bureau chief for Prague during Soviet rule, 1968-88. She had a lot of great stories, about being tailed by the secret police, about working for people who she never spoke to, and about journalism being a really poorly paid field. She was really witty and fun (and 84 years old!), and honestly quite a bit more interesting and well-spoken than my actual teacher, who is probably a great journalist, but not a great teacher, especially of philosophy.
Czech class has been really cool this week; our teacher is out so we were placed in a different class, which is quite a bit more organized and fast-paced. We are learning adjective endings, numbers, and restaurant vocab. Today we learned a couple other phrases as well:
Jsou zamilovani. = They are in love.
Laska je slepa. = Love is blind.
Miluju te. = I love you.
In Prague Art & Architecture yesterday, we took a walk through the city to see the gothic architecture, and then went to the National Gallery, which is held in a former convent. It was cold... but interesting! We saw the evolution of Gothic art from functionalist to emotional, and the shift of feelings from peaceful reverence to suffering, in the faces of statues and paintings. We saw about 20 statues on the same theme; Madonna and Child; and our teacher explained in detail the significance in each tiny difference. It was fastinating, no lie.
I have reporting this afternoon, and then East-Central European politics tonight. If I can survive through that my roomies and I are going out for traditional Czech dinner! Huzzah!

Here is a slideshow of MORE pictures, this time, from Breanne's camera. There are pictures from Dresden & a couple from Prague near the end of last week. There are some pictures of me&the roomies, and some of my NEW CAMERA. :)

Apartment Mates

Well hello there!
Today was a whirlwind. I got a wake up "It is 7 am" by a really nice Hostel employee (per my request) - at 7am, and then by 7:45 I was out of the hostel and on my way to the tram, with half of my luggage.
And NOW... I'm here! The apartment is really nice. There are 6 girls living here in three bedrooms. Myself and my roommate Breanne, Kelly and Ali, and Kiernan and Ellie. We have a nice big living/dining/kitchen area, a tub/shower thing, and a big foyer. Apparently this area was once a doctor's office, so it's a bit weird shaped and there are a lot of mysterious locked doors.
Our entire apartment is furnished by ikea, very cheaply I might add. But Kiernan brought a big Buddha tapestry which is very nicely adorning our wall.We have enjoyed setting up the apartment a bit. We all took a trip to TESCO, a big supermarket/everything store. It is very, very confusing, since it's all in czech... The floor you walk in on is a big room, selling toiletries and wine. We knew it was a grocery store (there was one of those coupon packets at the entrance, with pictures of food!) but couldn't find food anywhere... it took a lot of walking in and out until we found a sign that said "Food" with an arrow to a sort of secluded staircase... but there we found a bustling grocery store (still in Czech, though...) I bought: pasta, cereal, yoghurt (I think), pineapple juice, and a single-serve rice pudding thing. I'll go back tomorrow with a list and a Czech dictionary. How overwhelming, this language barrier!
After TESCO my roommates and I went out to dinner at a Chinese place (I know, but we will have plenty of time to get Czech food). It was pretty... quiet. Everyone is tired and jet lagged, it is just weird to be here. But it went well. I like these girls. They're all from the US, and some of them have been here before, and some of them have never left the hemisphere.
After dinner, there was a big unofficial meeting of kids from our program (CEA) under the astronomical clock in old town square. There are a lot of people in our group. And a lot of them are really tall! I was also struck by something: at Lewis & Clark, there are ALWAYS more girls than guys. This group was about 70% male... and it was so odd, especially odd that it struck me as odd.
After a bit, the group went off to go bar hopping. Ali & I decided to head back to the apartment, but I, in a stroke of bad judgment, gave away my map to a lost fellow CEA student, and we had quite a time trying to get back here. Ali is really nice - she has a Minnesotan accent, being from Minnesota, and we chatted a bit while I tried to make up for getting us lost. We made it, though!
Prague at night is beautiful. The buildings, the light, it is all very nice. I was not so fond of the throngs of tourists and clubbers all over (although we did walk through pretty much every tourist hot spot, so we got just the worst of it). I may find myself staying in more in the evenings, I think. I don't know how to feel about this: I don't know if I'm just silly and anti-social, or boring, or immature, or somehow just... I don't know. But not drinking and clubbing will save me money :)
Sorry for the length and rambliness.... and Na Shledanou! (means see ya later.. in Czech!)

Timing and Missiles

Today it only took me 8 minutes to walk to work-Amazing!

Barack Obama won the nomination of the Democratic Party last night... hooray! Even the people who get money for reporting on this race were getting tired of it months ago. On to November! Speaking of November... I've been thinking about the big events I'm going to miss while I'm in Prague. The election-that's a big one-it'll be the first Presidential election since I turned 18. I'll also miss-on a slightly smaller scale - two Supreme Court justices coming to my college (link) - which would've been cool to see.

But I'm sure I'll keep up with exciting news when I'm in Prague. For example, big in the news in the past few months has been the agreement between the US and the Czech Republic to install US missiles in that country (link). This has upset peace people, and of course has upset Russia, and it's very interesting.

Hopefully I'll get internet at my house soon, so I can start posting some photos!

I am learning Czech through my iPod... here are some great words:

• Praha - means Prague
• Dobry den! - good day!
• Jak se mate? - how are you?
• Velmi dobre, dekuji (velmee dobjay, de-kooey) - very well, thank you
• ano - yes (I'm also told that they abbreviate this to just 'no'... how confusing is that?)
• ne - no
• cukr (pronounced like "zucker") - means "sugar"
• mysl (pronounced like "missle") - means "mind" - I like this one.

Czech is so hard!! Thanks for the book, Grandpa & Nana!