So I was hit by a car on Monday morning, while jogging downtown.
I dont have a single scratch or bruise on me, but it was an interesting addition to my Monday nonetheless. As I was running along Peace St. I glanced both ways while crossing a side road and neglected to see the little silver car coming on my left. So I essentially lept unexpectedley in front of this guy's car like a clueless deer, he saw me (probably had a minor heart attack) and braked, the car hit me, sort of knocked me onto it, moved me about 2 feet and the police car conveniently sitting at the light cruised over to see that I was alright. I was, much to the drivers amazement, and after assuring them both that i was perfectly fine, I continued running and proceded to have an otherwise uneventful day.
Weird to think about, especially considering I have probably sustained more injury from walking into doors and tripping over curbs than getting hit by this moving vehicle....
Lauren
Friday, October 23, 2009
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
preoccupied
This morning I got out of the shower, got dressed, ate breakfast, sat down on the couch to check my email, and as I crossed my legs and readjusted my denim skirt - realized I had only shaved one of my legs in the shower. . . . Wednesday is off to a good start.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Pie Puppy Extraordinaire
Today I was making key lime pies to sell at work. After an hour of serious graham crushing and filling preparation, I pulled pies one and two out of the oven, and just as I was placing (with two hands, mind you) pie number three onto the perfectly placed center rack.... the foil pan flopped in half between my fingers, sloshing the entire pie onto the oven floor and the drawer below. Disbelief, followed by violent swearing ensued. Dad and Chris mosied over to see what i was cursing about, and the three of us stood there speechless, staring cluelessly at the sizzling mess for a good thirty seconds (perhaps trying to undo it with our minds?) before anyone said anything. Dad and Chris quickly mumbled some excuse about having to pick up chris's car at the very moment and before i could even aknowledge what they said i found myself alone in the house, holding my empty pie pan staring at the dripping goop by myself. Thanks guys.
The oven floor was pretty much helpless until the oven cooled down, so i began removing the goo and lids from the drawer below. I moved half the lids to the sink still grumbling to myself about being such a klutz and when i turned back around to grab the rest, i discovered my fuzzy black little pie mopping savior. Cole to the rescue! As if she were saying "I cant beleive those big goons just left you here, to clean up all this delicious pie by your self!" her cute little head burrowed into the lid drawer and assumed a steady and enthusiastic licking motion for the next five minutes. I cleaned up the big globs and she licked small globs, I rinsed the big ligs, and she handed me the small lids (not really, but that would have been awesome!) anyway it was teamwork at it's finest, and we totally stuck it to those lame boys who stranded us, while also enjoying a tangy snack all to ourselves.
The moral of this story is that I have the best puppy in the world, who I am now tempted to bake little puppy desserts for. Also be careful with foil pie pans. They will turn on you.
Lauren
The oven floor was pretty much helpless until the oven cooled down, so i began removing the goo and lids from the drawer below. I moved half the lids to the sink still grumbling to myself about being such a klutz and when i turned back around to grab the rest, i discovered my fuzzy black little pie mopping savior. Cole to the rescue! As if she were saying "I cant beleive those big goons just left you here, to clean up all this delicious pie by your self!" her cute little head burrowed into the lid drawer and assumed a steady and enthusiastic licking motion for the next five minutes. I cleaned up the big globs and she licked small globs, I rinsed the big ligs, and she handed me the small lids (not really, but that would have been awesome!) anyway it was teamwork at it's finest, and we totally stuck it to those lame boys who stranded us, while also enjoying a tangy snack all to ourselves.
The moral of this story is that I have the best puppy in the world, who I am now tempted to bake little puppy desserts for. Also be careful with foil pie pans. They will turn on you.
Lauren
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Puppy Tales: Week One
Sunday 5/10
Mothers Day and Dad’s Birthday. Who can think of a better day to bring home a brand new bouncing, biting, licking, dirt eating puppy?! ( I for one cannot imagine a better possible scenario, however it‘s very likely that my mom could have….very easily, in fact)
Anyways here is the back-story. I have been campaigning for a new family dog/puppy for over a year now, and decided that since I have no current job prospects for the summer and Chris and I are both leaving in the fall (at which point mom (obviously but unadmittedly) will be suffering from empty nest syndrome) I deemed now the perfect time to put operation acquire a puppy into action.
I applied online for the rescue puppy (Lola, an 8-10 week old black lab mix) on Thursday, received a congratulations call on Saturday, and mom, dad and me were on our way to a foster house in Philadelphia to pick her up at 11am Sunday morning. (Talk about a last minute puppy supplies scramble!) There were 17 puppies waiting to be adopted that day from Wet Nose Rescue, all of which would have been put down had they not been adopted. “Lola” and her 3 sisters and 1 brother came up from South Carolina, where they were born from a stray dog in a woodpile. The adoption organization was great and gave us all sorts of info, supplies and samples with our new pup.
She was very well behaved on the ride home and after many name and spellings debate, we settled on calling her “Cole.” Which I had had picked out for a long time now. Cole started out a little timid but enjoyed exploring her new home. We gave her a dish soap bath (Dawn apparently kills fleas) and spent most of the day playing with her and her new yellow frog beanie on the back deck. Cole enjoyed nibbling on Mom’s tomato plant when she wasn’t looking, and often sometimes when she was looking, as well as snuggling under a big blue blanket in the backyard and sneaking under the deck whenever possible. She didn’t eat too much the first day, but she did an excellent job of sitting by the grill “assisting” dad cook dinner.
Monday 5/11
Cole went to bed around 11 and woke up around 5:30 am. We played for a little while then fell asleep on the family room floor together. Cole woke up as the rest of the family went about their routines and I continued my nap on the couch. Cole fell asleep again watching Squawk Box with dad (who wouldn’t?) and I got up around 8:30. Later on she ran around with my birthday balloon, and joined dad and I on a Petsmart trip to pick out chew toys and treats. Cole chose a minty rope toy and a snuggly little squeaky lamb. She also received several dozen belly rubs from the Petsmart employees. Upon arriving home she began chewing everything in sight except for her new toys (my left arm took the brunt of it), and also let out a little excited pee for mom when she got home. Apparently she doesn’t realize that she hasn’t completely won mom over yet and this little incident did not earn her any points. Successful second bath in the evening.
Tuesday 5/12
2&4 am wake ups, handled by dad. I woke up to a surprise shower of puppy kisses provided by Cole with the help of mom. Cole proceeded to make a startling yaking noise after this which had mom running her downstairs so fast I found myself wondering whether I had dreamed the whole thing. Cole and I ate breakfast after that and she settled down for a nap while I scooted over to Petsmart for more supplies (found a cute puppy-sized plaid collar on sale!) I took her for a walk when I got home, using her brand new red harness. We did one block and only stalled once in front of a big German Sheppard with a loud bark. Cole answered back with her own little growl once we were a safe 20 yards past the house. She sprinted the last 50 yards home. In teething puppy news, Cole’s biting force has quadrupled over night along with her hunger for human flesh, as everything from my toes to my face have come to experience. She also now has a tendency to latch onto any inch of our clothing she can and hold on for dear life.
Wednesday 5/13
4:30 and 6:30 am wake ups. Dad and I left her alone for the first time to run an errand and found she had re decorated her crate when we came back. I took her to visit mom at work later where she excitedly peed on several innocent coworkers. She was well behaved for the most part through and received several adoring belly rubs. She ventured some dangerous seat jumping on the car ride home, but passed out in the backseat shortly after. After a quick lunch we were off too the vet for Cole’s first check up! The vet technicians adored her and the vet reported that Cole was healthy with a small case of hook worms, which she received some banana flavored medicine for. Another nap on the car ride home, and another on the front lawn while I cleaned my car. Cole had an evening visit from a few of chris’ friends. She remained calm throughout the exciting visit only to explode into a fury of hyperactivity and psychotic biting after they left. Thanks guys. I blocked off the area under the computer table and side of the couch so that Cole’s secret agent tunneling into computer wire central for chew sessions would come to an end, unfortunately this has not put an end to her affection for chewing and biting everything else in site. After an unsuccessful walk attempt later on, we settled for running laps around the house practicing the “come” command which Cole has come to excel at. Some over zealous biting and jumpy later on landed Cole in her crate around 10:30.
Thursday 5/14
5:30am wake up to a rainy day with lots of naps. Cole has a habit of running and stretching in her sleep then accidentally rolling off her pillow. Its hilarious and adorable. When the rain cleared later, we took a field trip with dad to community park to check on Chris’ Eagle Scout project benches. Cole did some running around there, and very much enjoyed jumping off the benches and eating dirt. She looked extremely cute and hip in her new plaid collar and hot red harness. She napped some more at home and we ran laps round the house again after another unsuccessful walk attempt (what kind of Labrador is she anyways??) Well she is currently the kind of Labrador that enjoys dragging kitchen rugs over to her pillow in the family room to chew on, attempting to eat her own dog tag while its attached to her, and tunneling under the computer table to gnaw wires in peace. In other news, I trimmed Cole’s nails to avoid further scarring on my part, she is eating more and is doing very well with her house training and she is still cute as a bug. More tales to follow
Lauren
Mothers Day and Dad’s Birthday. Who can think of a better day to bring home a brand new bouncing, biting, licking, dirt eating puppy?! ( I for one cannot imagine a better possible scenario, however it‘s very likely that my mom could have….very easily, in fact)
Anyways here is the back-story. I have been campaigning for a new family dog/puppy for over a year now, and decided that since I have no current job prospects for the summer and Chris and I are both leaving in the fall (at which point mom (obviously but unadmittedly) will be suffering from empty nest syndrome) I deemed now the perfect time to put operation acquire a puppy into action.
I applied online for the rescue puppy (Lola, an 8-10 week old black lab mix) on Thursday, received a congratulations call on Saturday, and mom, dad and me were on our way to a foster house in Philadelphia to pick her up at 11am Sunday morning. (Talk about a last minute puppy supplies scramble!) There were 17 puppies waiting to be adopted that day from Wet Nose Rescue, all of which would have been put down had they not been adopted. “Lola” and her 3 sisters and 1 brother came up from South Carolina, where they were born from a stray dog in a woodpile. The adoption organization was great and gave us all sorts of info, supplies and samples with our new pup.
She was very well behaved on the ride home and after many name and spellings debate, we settled on calling her “Cole.” Which I had had picked out for a long time now. Cole started out a little timid but enjoyed exploring her new home. We gave her a dish soap bath (Dawn apparently kills fleas) and spent most of the day playing with her and her new yellow frog beanie on the back deck. Cole enjoyed nibbling on Mom’s tomato plant when she wasn’t looking, and often sometimes when she was looking, as well as snuggling under a big blue blanket in the backyard and sneaking under the deck whenever possible. She didn’t eat too much the first day, but she did an excellent job of sitting by the grill “assisting” dad cook dinner.
Monday 5/11
Cole went to bed around 11 and woke up around 5:30 am. We played for a little while then fell asleep on the family room floor together. Cole woke up as the rest of the family went about their routines and I continued my nap on the couch. Cole fell asleep again watching Squawk Box with dad (who wouldn’t?) and I got up around 8:30. Later on she ran around with my birthday balloon, and joined dad and I on a Petsmart trip to pick out chew toys and treats. Cole chose a minty rope toy and a snuggly little squeaky lamb. She also received several dozen belly rubs from the Petsmart employees. Upon arriving home she began chewing everything in sight except for her new toys (my left arm took the brunt of it), and also let out a little excited pee for mom when she got home. Apparently she doesn’t realize that she hasn’t completely won mom over yet and this little incident did not earn her any points. Successful second bath in the evening.
Tuesday 5/12
2&4 am wake ups, handled by dad. I woke up to a surprise shower of puppy kisses provided by Cole with the help of mom. Cole proceeded to make a startling yaking noise after this which had mom running her downstairs so fast I found myself wondering whether I had dreamed the whole thing. Cole and I ate breakfast after that and she settled down for a nap while I scooted over to Petsmart for more supplies (found a cute puppy-sized plaid collar on sale!) I took her for a walk when I got home, using her brand new red harness. We did one block and only stalled once in front of a big German Sheppard with a loud bark. Cole answered back with her own little growl once we were a safe 20 yards past the house. She sprinted the last 50 yards home. In teething puppy news, Cole’s biting force has quadrupled over night along with her hunger for human flesh, as everything from my toes to my face have come to experience. She also now has a tendency to latch onto any inch of our clothing she can and hold on for dear life.
Wednesday 5/13
4:30 and 6:30 am wake ups. Dad and I left her alone for the first time to run an errand and found she had re decorated her crate when we came back. I took her to visit mom at work later where she excitedly peed on several innocent coworkers. She was well behaved for the most part through and received several adoring belly rubs. She ventured some dangerous seat jumping on the car ride home, but passed out in the backseat shortly after. After a quick lunch we were off too the vet for Cole’s first check up! The vet technicians adored her and the vet reported that Cole was healthy with a small case of hook worms, which she received some banana flavored medicine for. Another nap on the car ride home, and another on the front lawn while I cleaned my car. Cole had an evening visit from a few of chris’ friends. She remained calm throughout the exciting visit only to explode into a fury of hyperactivity and psychotic biting after they left. Thanks guys. I blocked off the area under the computer table and side of the couch so that Cole’s secret agent tunneling into computer wire central for chew sessions would come to an end, unfortunately this has not put an end to her affection for chewing and biting everything else in site. After an unsuccessful walk attempt later on, we settled for running laps around the house practicing the “come” command which Cole has come to excel at. Some over zealous biting and jumpy later on landed Cole in her crate around 10:30.
Thursday 5/14
5:30am wake up to a rainy day with lots of naps. Cole has a habit of running and stretching in her sleep then accidentally rolling off her pillow. Its hilarious and adorable. When the rain cleared later, we took a field trip with dad to community park to check on Chris’ Eagle Scout project benches. Cole did some running around there, and very much enjoyed jumping off the benches and eating dirt. She looked extremely cute and hip in her new plaid collar and hot red harness. She napped some more at home and we ran laps round the house again after another unsuccessful walk attempt (what kind of Labrador is she anyways??) Well she is currently the kind of Labrador that enjoys dragging kitchen rugs over to her pillow in the family room to chew on, attempting to eat her own dog tag while its attached to her, and tunneling under the computer table to gnaw wires in peace. In other news, I trimmed Cole’s nails to avoid further scarring on my part, she is eating more and is doing very well with her house training and she is still cute as a bug. More tales to follow
Lauren
Prague Wrap Up
Saturday (4/25) was a sunny final day in pretty Prague. I walked from the Mustek metro stop over to the metronome/skate park to get a last view of the beautiful red-roofed city. I wandered around in the park area up there for a while, found a little restaurant/house place with a gorgeous view of the river and bridges outside, watched oddles of dogs frolicking about and eventually made my way back to the hostel. Later that evening Andrew, Jeremy, Terry, Gennie and I went to ordinary people for a last meal and beer. Some final packing after that (mostly watching Blakeley try to stuff 4 tons of clothing in 2 half broken suitcases) and then some thinking about home, summer plans and how this trip has changed the way I feel going back to it all. I think these past three months in Prague have changed the way I look at the world, the way I think about other people and other cultures, and most of all how I see my own culture and the things that make it home for me. I’m so grateful for the experiences I had and the lessons I’ve learned. My only wish is that my family someday have the same opportunity they gave to me .
Lauren
And now as my blogs about Prague come to a close, a new blog worthy interest has entered my life, in the form of a frisky 11 pound black lab-mix little girl puppy named Cole. Begin: The Puppy Tales
Lauren
And now as my blogs about Prague come to a close, a new blog worthy interest has entered my life, in the form of a frisky 11 pound black lab-mix little girl puppy named Cole. Begin: The Puppy Tales
Saturday, April 25, 2009
The Last Week.....
Sunday night Gennie, Jeremy and I ended up seeing Gran Torino at the Flora cinema. The movie was really good but a little bit lacking in dialogue and a little bit substituting with racial stereotyping…also fairly predictable but still a strong story. I really liked the song at the end.
Monday 4/20
Jeremy and I attempted to go to one of Prague’s better flea markets, but found it short on cool stuff and full of sunglasses, strange souvenirs and crappy clothes. Disappointing.. Off to studio after that. Last group meeting; I gave Dana my revised version of the handbook which she seemed impressed with, then some online job hunting for me while everyone else finished up their cocktail dresses. I went back to the hostel to study beekeeping after that.
Tuesday 4/21
Went for a morning run, then skyped mom and studied bees some more. We took our exam at 3:30, and Dalibor gave us our grades an hour later. I managed an A on the test which equals an A for the semester! Hooray. I fiddled around with some little fabric crafts after that then went back to the hostel to begin getting my things organized for home (holy crap!) Skyped dad there too.
Wednesday 4/22
We turned in our final fashion history papers then headed out to the castle for our cocktail dress photo shoot. We mostly just took pictures in little nooks of the town around the castle, but everywhere we went was really pretty and we had a nice (tad bit chilly) day so I think the pictures will turn out really well. Eleanor and I left together when we were done and hopped on the tram. We traveled about 50 feet before the tram stopped and kicked us out along with the passengers of 3 other stopped trams. We were not sure why this happened, but with all the confusion, scrambling, and misdirected people (including ourselves) it felt like the world was coming to an end. Eleanor and I thrust ourselves into the crowd of people moving rapidly down the hill hoping for the best. After a steady trek downhill and several crazed traffic sprints we made it to the metro station and normalcy and boarded the green line safely back to studio. I popped into the Landscape architecture open house, saw the cool stuff they have been slaving over for the last few weeks, snagged a free glass of wine and made my way back to the hostel.
Thursday 4/23
We slept in a little bit, then began preparations for our evening performance/final show. After some primping and final costume adjustments we made our way over to the small art gallery/our performance space. This was about 2pm. We ran through the play several times, began drinking, then ran through it some more. Eleanor and I took a break to go find a flower shop (for Nina) and searched the nearby streets, sketchily drinking beer out of our pockets. We were successful in our flower hunt (though we had some small communication troubles with the florist) then decided to pick up some liquor for Ladislav (he is always stealing sips of ours so we thought this would be appropriate.) We snuck successfully back into the space without being seen, and then Blakeley arrived about 15 minutes after us with another bundle of flowers for Nina (oooops!) small communication error but not a major problem. Our show went on around 5:30 in front a crowded little audience. It went pretty smoothly -only a few minor hiccups that mostly went unnoticed, then it was cocktail dress time. We did a little catwalk to Michael Jackson and we were done! Hooray! Time for wine and dinner. We lugged all of our stuff back to the studio then took a very scenic ride on Tram 22 to the Monastery where we had our first group dinner way back in January. I explored the pretty gardens and scenery outside for a bit with Fernando, Ben and John, (everything was so green and thick, and mystical feeling. It’s the kind of place that makes you want to run around like a little kid playing tag and hide and go seek till its too dark to see) then we returned inside with the others and began our evening of excellent beer and food. I had a half liter of the mixed (light and dark) beer and one of straight dark. Delicious Klaster. Also it’s worth mentioning that Lorna themed the night “Mustache Mayhem,” and so Martin (landscape professor) went around drawing exotic mustaches on everyone’s faces with Eleanor’s eyeliner (much to her dismay.) He gave me a pair of scary eyebrows, which I later wiped off in favor of a squiggly mustache. It was nice to end things where they began.
Friday 4/24
We slept in and after I did some organizing in the hostel, I made my way over to studio with Rima to clean our stuff out of there. Ladislav greeted us at the door offering champagne and shots of Beckerovka. (this was about 2pm mind you, though he had been offering them to others all morning) I cleaned up my stuff, turned in my key, then went down to the market to search for last minute souvenirs for a particular brother who has too many t shirts, for me to possibly bring him home another one. I settled on something appropriate for a graduating senior then loaded up my studio stuff and headed back to the hostel. After some more organizing and packing I got ready for the birthday dinner we had planned. I was Briand and Blakeley’s birthday with mine coming on Monday so we decided to go out to a Staropramen Restaurant with a small gang to celebrate. The restaurant was definitely on the slow side with delivering the food, but once it came the wait didn’t seem so bad. Delicious. Add in two beers and a funfetti cake from Katelyn and Jess, and I was happy (and stuffed) camper. Back To the hostel after dinner, where we decked ourselves out in our best 80’s fashions for a night of 80’s and 90’s music at the very popular Lucerna Music Bar. I rocked a side ponytail, big hoops and my newly acquired white rimmed shades. We ended the night on Billie Jean (which might as well be the theme song for the whole trip) around 2:40 am and caught the 51 tram outside just in time. Terry was proud to show us how he had sweated entirely through two layers of clothes (including a canary yellow hoodie with cut off sleeves. Viva the 80‘s!) Great last night in Prague.
Saturday 4/25
Today is a day of last minute picture taking, final packing, and final beer enjoyment. Nothing really panned other than that. Maybe one last trip to the French onion soup place around the corner (Ordinary People) for dinner. 9 am shuttle to the airport tomorrow.
Things I’ve failed to mention about Prague so far
PDA is everywhere and it’s out of control (dry humping and ear licking on public transit, On a daily basis!)
Bright colored tights are all the rage
Chips, popcorn etc. come in three main flavors: salted, paprika, bacon
They love their 80’s music here, and I love them for it :)
Lauren
Monday 4/20
Jeremy and I attempted to go to one of Prague’s better flea markets, but found it short on cool stuff and full of sunglasses, strange souvenirs and crappy clothes. Disappointing.. Off to studio after that. Last group meeting; I gave Dana my revised version of the handbook which she seemed impressed with, then some online job hunting for me while everyone else finished up their cocktail dresses. I went back to the hostel to study beekeeping after that.
Tuesday 4/21
Went for a morning run, then skyped mom and studied bees some more. We took our exam at 3:30, and Dalibor gave us our grades an hour later. I managed an A on the test which equals an A for the semester! Hooray. I fiddled around with some little fabric crafts after that then went back to the hostel to begin getting my things organized for home (holy crap!) Skyped dad there too.
Wednesday 4/22
We turned in our final fashion history papers then headed out to the castle for our cocktail dress photo shoot. We mostly just took pictures in little nooks of the town around the castle, but everywhere we went was really pretty and we had a nice (tad bit chilly) day so I think the pictures will turn out really well. Eleanor and I left together when we were done and hopped on the tram. We traveled about 50 feet before the tram stopped and kicked us out along with the passengers of 3 other stopped trams. We were not sure why this happened, but with all the confusion, scrambling, and misdirected people (including ourselves) it felt like the world was coming to an end. Eleanor and I thrust ourselves into the crowd of people moving rapidly down the hill hoping for the best. After a steady trek downhill and several crazed traffic sprints we made it to the metro station and normalcy and boarded the green line safely back to studio. I popped into the Landscape architecture open house, saw the cool stuff they have been slaving over for the last few weeks, snagged a free glass of wine and made my way back to the hostel.
Thursday 4/23
We slept in a little bit, then began preparations for our evening performance/final show. After some primping and final costume adjustments we made our way over to the small art gallery/our performance space. This was about 2pm. We ran through the play several times, began drinking, then ran through it some more. Eleanor and I took a break to go find a flower shop (for Nina) and searched the nearby streets, sketchily drinking beer out of our pockets. We were successful in our flower hunt (though we had some small communication troubles with the florist) then decided to pick up some liquor for Ladislav (he is always stealing sips of ours so we thought this would be appropriate.) We snuck successfully back into the space without being seen, and then Blakeley arrived about 15 minutes after us with another bundle of flowers for Nina (oooops!) small communication error but not a major problem. Our show went on around 5:30 in front a crowded little audience. It went pretty smoothly -only a few minor hiccups that mostly went unnoticed, then it was cocktail dress time. We did a little catwalk to Michael Jackson and we were done! Hooray! Time for wine and dinner. We lugged all of our stuff back to the studio then took a very scenic ride on Tram 22 to the Monastery where we had our first group dinner way back in January. I explored the pretty gardens and scenery outside for a bit with Fernando, Ben and John, (everything was so green and thick, and mystical feeling. It’s the kind of place that makes you want to run around like a little kid playing tag and hide and go seek till its too dark to see) then we returned inside with the others and began our evening of excellent beer and food. I had a half liter of the mixed (light and dark) beer and one of straight dark. Delicious Klaster. Also it’s worth mentioning that Lorna themed the night “Mustache Mayhem,” and so Martin (landscape professor) went around drawing exotic mustaches on everyone’s faces with Eleanor’s eyeliner (much to her dismay.) He gave me a pair of scary eyebrows, which I later wiped off in favor of a squiggly mustache. It was nice to end things where they began.
Friday 4/24
We slept in and after I did some organizing in the hostel, I made my way over to studio with Rima to clean our stuff out of there. Ladislav greeted us at the door offering champagne and shots of Beckerovka. (this was about 2pm mind you, though he had been offering them to others all morning) I cleaned up my stuff, turned in my key, then went down to the market to search for last minute souvenirs for a particular brother who has too many t shirts, for me to possibly bring him home another one. I settled on something appropriate for a graduating senior then loaded up my studio stuff and headed back to the hostel. After some more organizing and packing I got ready for the birthday dinner we had planned. I was Briand and Blakeley’s birthday with mine coming on Monday so we decided to go out to a Staropramen Restaurant with a small gang to celebrate. The restaurant was definitely on the slow side with delivering the food, but once it came the wait didn’t seem so bad. Delicious. Add in two beers and a funfetti cake from Katelyn and Jess, and I was happy (and stuffed) camper. Back To the hostel after dinner, where we decked ourselves out in our best 80’s fashions for a night of 80’s and 90’s music at the very popular Lucerna Music Bar. I rocked a side ponytail, big hoops and my newly acquired white rimmed shades. We ended the night on Billie Jean (which might as well be the theme song for the whole trip) around 2:40 am and caught the 51 tram outside just in time. Terry was proud to show us how he had sweated entirely through two layers of clothes (including a canary yellow hoodie with cut off sleeves. Viva the 80‘s!) Great last night in Prague.
Saturday 4/25
Today is a day of last minute picture taking, final packing, and final beer enjoyment. Nothing really panned other than that. Maybe one last trip to the French onion soup place around the corner (Ordinary People) for dinner. 9 am shuttle to the airport tomorrow.
Things I’ve failed to mention about Prague so far
PDA is everywhere and it’s out of control (dry humping and ear licking on public transit, On a daily basis!)
Bright colored tights are all the rage
Chips, popcorn etc. come in three main flavors: salted, paprika, bacon
They love their 80’s music here, and I love them for it :)
Lauren
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
In the Spirit of Heading Home Soon...
Things I’m looking forward to at home:
Cooking and baking with normal supplies
English speaking grocery store workers
A mosquito-free bedroom
Proper pedicure supplies (much needed!)
Availability and affordability of cheddar cheese
non plastic-tasting cereal bars
Smoke-free restaurants
Craft supplies (and a spacious family room to spread them out in. wink)
Using a telephone
Driving
Ma, Pa and Chris
Things I crave from home:
Red Robin crispy chicken salad
Big leafy salads of any kind
Reese’s peanut butter cups
Cookout milkshake
Italian Dressing
Herr’s sour cream and onion chips
Fresh clean t-shirts
Summer wardrobe
Flip flops
Things I will miss about Prague:
Good beer at great prices. wine too
Cobblestones
Colorful buildings
Open-ended explorations
Breathtaking views
Friends
Pubs & clubs
Public transportation
Musli granola
Lauren
Cooking and baking with normal supplies
English speaking grocery store workers
A mosquito-free bedroom
Proper pedicure supplies (much needed!)
Availability and affordability of cheddar cheese
non plastic-tasting cereal bars
Smoke-free restaurants
Craft supplies (and a spacious family room to spread them out in. wink)
Using a telephone
Driving
Ma, Pa and Chris
Things I crave from home:
Red Robin crispy chicken salad
Big leafy salads of any kind
Reese’s peanut butter cups
Cookout milkshake
Italian Dressing
Herr’s sour cream and onion chips
Fresh clean t-shirts
Summer wardrobe
Flip flops
Things I will miss about Prague:
Good beer at great prices. wine too
Cobblestones
Colorful buildings
Open-ended explorations
Breathtaking views
Friends
Pubs & clubs
Public transportation
Musli granola
Lauren
Sunday, April 19, 2009
One week to go..
Second to last week in Prague, ahhhh!
Sunday (4/12) was relaxing day on my own -a big part of our group was away on an all day philosophy field trip. I decided to explore the city area behind our hostel, but found it pretty dead with it being Easter day and all. So I came back to the hostel, gathered up our months worth of beer bottles and went to grocery store down the street to cash them in and get some lunch. The bottles earned me a 45 Koruna credit (3 Kc each!) so I picked up some cereal, milk and fruit (I’m craving the normalcies of home) and came back to eat it. After that I strolled down to a little park I found while exploring and sat in the sun for a while reading. It was very nice and there were actually quite a few people frolicking about the park. More milk and cereal for dinner (my addiction has resumed) and a pretty quiet night.
Monday 4/13
I woke up early to go tot the fabric store before studio, but after making the long trek out there I found it closed for “Easter Monday,” which is apparently a big deal here. Went to studio after that and made the muslin of my cocktail dress. Nina and Ladislav took us to Muzeum after class to see and old dress collection/exhibit. It featured some very old and unique wedding dresses from throughout the decades. Apparently people were extremely tiny before 1920, and also wedding dresses were not so often white.
Tuesday 4/14
I took a solo trip to go see the Prague castle, since I was apparently the only one who hadn’t gone. The walk up to it was a sweaty one, but the day was beautiful and so w
ere the views of the city below. I made it there just in time for a small changing of guards on the back entrance at 11am. Inside the courtyard area I saw St. Vitus’s Cathedral and St. George’s Basilica but opted not to go inside due to the long lines and steep ticket price. I walked around the side of the complex through the Gardens on the Ramparts, which were sooo beautif
ul. Everything was in full bloom and chirping the morning away, and the view of the red-roofed town below was so pretty and peaceful. I could have stayed there for a while…but I kept moving toward the front of the castle where I witnessed the 12pm big changing of the guards -very formal and kinda boring. I saw the battling Titans on the front gate (sculpted in the 18th century) then made my way back through the inner courtyards once again and back down through the streets of Mala Strana. I made another more hopeful trip to the fabric store, and happily found it open. I picked out materials for my cocktail dress and a side project dress then made my way to the studio for beekeeping class at 2:30. Class was long and kinda dull as we learned about bee diseases and infestations (note: mites are gross and disgusting to watch videos of) I was also extremely hungry, so that made it feel a lot longer. After class I was grumpy, from having not eaten so I made some stove popcorn and headed back to the hostel to eat and de-grumpify. Jeremy and I walked around the dog park down the street later on and witnessed several psychotic dogs wrestling each other and one massive dog rape scene. I was not very pleased with a certain dog named “Humphreyyy!!” after that and so we left soon after.
Wednesday 4/15
I made my entire cocktail dress today (I was very motivated and barely took a break to use the bathroom) but I was very satisfied with the final product and myself afterwards, It feels pretty good to be done with all the work and ahead of everyone else.. Stress free :) We had our last fashion history class as well. I had chicken and rice for dinner and left for the hostel afterwards to fit in a run. Excellent night for a run; perfect weather.
Thursday 4/16
I didn’t have much to do in studio, so I wrote my final fashion history paper, then worked on revising the Prague handbook, since it is seriously lacking in useful information. After that we technically had fashion illustration but most people were in intense costume sewing mode, so it sort of got ignored. Gennie and I went for a stroll around town and bought some souvenirs, then we came back to the institute and I left after dinner again for another run.
Friday 4/17
Today was rainy for the first time in a while and chilly so it was a stay indoors kinda d
ay. I didn’t have much to do so I decided to go into studio to work on my side project dress. I finished after dinner and once again was really happy with the end product. I’m definitely understanding garment construction better than I did before this semester and I’m producing more interesting designs with slightly more complicated constructions. I feel a lot more confident in my sewing abilities and I’m very excited about it :) Leftover chicken and rice for dinner and then early night to prepare for photo shoot on Saturday.
Saturday 4/18
Arrived at studio at 9 am to get our make up done by the make up artist, then final costume checks and we
were off to the performance space for the photo shoot. Jeremy and I were the first ones to go (as Lysander and Hermia) and it was a little awkward because you never really know what to do in front of the camera, pose wise that is. But we gave it our best try and I think there were some good ones. Blakeley and Gennie joined us next and I think the pictures got a little better. After our group was done Ladislav whipped out champagne to get everyone feeling loose (a little late Ladie!!) so everyone else’s pictures went pretty smoothly and we all got a little giddy and took silly pictures of our own. We also ran through the play/performance once or twice and determined that it probably just wont look that smooth. Oh well.
We finished up around 4:00 and after a fun but long day we treked back to the studio and immediately started seeking out food. I had a chicken nugget snack then went back to the hostel to await our Thai food plans for 6:30. I went to “Orange Moon” in the flora mall with Brian, Blakeley, Eleanor, and Laura-Nelle. I ordered fried rice with chicken and vegetable and it was delicious. After dinner
we got ready to go out early because the place we were going offered a discounted cover price of 50 Koruna for arrivals before 10pm. Worth it! We went to Karlovy Lazne, the “Biggest Dance Club in Central Europe,” which has 5 floors with different dance themes and lounges. The few of us that went early bought beer and played a few drinking games up on the fifth floor while waiting for the group that just couldn’t leave that early. They arrived around 11:30pm and we all spent most of our time on the 80’s themed 3rd floor with the light up floor. As a bonus I found a cute, fun pair of white rimmed sunglasses on the ground of one of the floors which I kept as a souvenir. whoo! Jeremy and I left around 1:30 feeling severely dehydrated and stopped in Wenceslas square for some juice while we waited for the tram. Fun day and night :)
Sunday
Today I went with Terry, Jeremy and Andrew to this crazy big scenic mountain/hill that is on the way to the airport. I had been wanting to go hike around there for a while and they wanted to go too. So we used the path, which ran through a pretty field of dandelions, to climb up the smaller of the mountains then decided to climb down this mountain, in order to climb up the other one (they were not connected) it was a really fun climb down that ended in a little babbling brook. then we were on our way up, through a field of blooming pear trees and verrry steep dirt trail and finally, after a little heaving, at the top of the big mountain in the bright green grass and refreshing breeze. Aaaaah, serenity. The views all around were beautiful and it was nice to just lay there in the grass for a little while enjoying nature. After a few replenishing snacks, we spread out Jeremy’s stolen airplane blanket and played several games of hearts (which I am really beginning to enjoy.) We played 3 rounds or so and I ended up winning , having only accumulated 1 point. Andrew, who was also a beginner, came in second. Haha the novices conquer all. After that we began our climb down and back up and back down over both mountains and back to the real world where studio work awaited (but not for me!) we stopped at the mcDonalds at the bus stop for some more sustenance. I got a strawberry milkshake that didn’t compare to a Cookout milkshake, and thus gave half to Andrew. Wonderful morning and afternoon. I would love to return to that area if time allows me. Plan for tonight is movie at Flora mall (with popcorn!!)
I’ll be home in a week (…where has the semester gone?!)
Lauren
Sunday (4/12) was relaxing day on my own -a big part of our group was away on an all day philosophy field trip. I decided to explore the city area behind our hostel, but found it pretty dead with it being Easter day and all. So I came back to the hostel, gathered up our months worth of beer bottles and went to grocery store down the street to cash them in and get some lunch. The bottles earned me a 45 Koruna credit (3 Kc each!) so I picked up some cereal, milk and fruit (I’m craving the normalcies of home) and came back to eat it. After that I strolled down to a little park I found while exploring and sat in the sun for a while reading. It was very nice and there were actually quite a few people frolicking about the park. More milk and cereal for dinner (my addiction has resumed) and a pretty quiet night.
Monday 4/13
I woke up early to go tot the fabric store before studio, but after making the long trek out there I found it closed for “Easter Monday,” which is apparently a big deal here. Went to studio after that and made the muslin of my cocktail dress. Nina and Ladislav took us to Muzeum after class to see and old dress collection/exhibit. It featured some very old and unique wedding dresses from throughout the decades. Apparently people were extremely tiny before 1920, and also wedding dresses were not so often white.
Tuesday 4/14
I took a solo trip to go see the Prague castle, since I was apparently the only one who hadn’t gone. The walk up to it was a sweaty one, but the day was beautiful and so w
ere the views of the city below. I made it there just in time for a small changing of guards on the back entrance at 11am. Inside the courtyard area I saw St. Vitus’s Cathedral and St. George’s Basilica but opted not to go inside due to the long lines and steep ticket price. I walked around the side of the complex through the Gardens on the Ramparts, which were sooo beautif
ul. Everything was in full bloom and chirping the morning away, and the view of the red-roofed town below was so pretty and peaceful. I could have stayed there for a while…but I kept moving toward the front of the castle where I witnessed the 12pm big changing of the guards -very formal and kinda boring. I saw the battling Titans on the front gate (sculpted in the 18th century) then made my way back through the inner courtyards once again and back down through the streets of Mala Strana. I made another more hopeful trip to the fabric store, and happily found it open. I picked out materials for my cocktail dress and a side project dress then made my way to the studio for beekeeping class at 2:30. Class was long and kinda dull as we learned about bee diseases and infestations (note: mites are gross and disgusting to watch videos of) I was also extremely hungry, so that made it feel a lot longer. After class I was grumpy, from having not eaten so I made some stove popcorn and headed back to the hostel to eat and de-grumpify. Jeremy and I walked around the dog park down the street later on and witnessed several psychotic dogs wrestling each other and one massive dog rape scene. I was not very pleased with a certain dog named “Humphreyyy!!” after that and so we left soon after.Wednesday 4/15
I made my entire cocktail dress today (I was very motivated and barely took a break to use the bathroom) but I was very satisfied with the final product and myself afterwards, It feels pretty good to be done with all the work and ahead of everyone else.. Stress free :) We had our last fashion history class as well. I had chicken and rice for dinner and left for the hostel afterwards to fit in a run. Excellent night for a run; perfect weather.
Thursday 4/16
I didn’t have much to do in studio, so I wrote my final fashion history paper, then worked on revising the Prague handbook, since it is seriously lacking in useful information. After that we technically had fashion illustration but most people were in intense costume sewing mode, so it sort of got ignored. Gennie and I went for a stroll around town and bought some souvenirs, then we came back to the institute and I left after dinner again for another run.
Friday 4/17
Today was rainy for the first time in a while and chilly so it was a stay indoors kinda d
ay. I didn’t have much to do so I decided to go into studio to work on my side project dress. I finished after dinner and once again was really happy with the end product. I’m definitely understanding garment construction better than I did before this semester and I’m producing more interesting designs with slightly more complicated constructions. I feel a lot more confident in my sewing abilities and I’m very excited about it :) Leftover chicken and rice for dinner and then early night to prepare for photo shoot on Saturday.Saturday 4/18
Arrived at studio at 9 am to get our make up done by the make up artist, then final costume checks and we
were off to the performance space for the photo shoot. Jeremy and I were the first ones to go (as Lysander and Hermia) and it was a little awkward because you never really know what to do in front of the camera, pose wise that is. But we gave it our best try and I think there were some good ones. Blakeley and Gennie joined us next and I think the pictures got a little better. After our group was done Ladislav whipped out champagne to get everyone feeling loose (a little late Ladie!!) so everyone else’s pictures went pretty smoothly and we all got a little giddy and took silly pictures of our own. We also ran through the play/performance once or twice and determined that it probably just wont look that smooth. Oh well.We finished up around 4:00 and after a fun but long day we treked back to the studio and immediately started seeking out food. I had a chicken nugget snack then went back to the hostel to await our Thai food plans for 6:30. I went to “Orange Moon” in the flora mall with Brian, Blakeley, Eleanor, and Laura-Nelle. I ordered fried rice with chicken and vegetable and it was delicious. After dinner
we got ready to go out early because the place we were going offered a discounted cover price of 50 Koruna for arrivals before 10pm. Worth it! We went to Karlovy Lazne, the “Biggest Dance Club in Central Europe,” which has 5 floors with different dance themes and lounges. The few of us that went early bought beer and played a few drinking games up on the fifth floor while waiting for the group that just couldn’t leave that early. They arrived around 11:30pm and we all spent most of our time on the 80’s themed 3rd floor with the light up floor. As a bonus I found a cute, fun pair of white rimmed sunglasses on the ground of one of the floors which I kept as a souvenir. whoo! Jeremy and I left around 1:30 feeling severely dehydrated and stopped in Wenceslas square for some juice while we waited for the tram. Fun day and night :)Sunday
Today I went with Terry, Jeremy and Andrew to this crazy big scenic mountain/hill that is on the way to the airport. I had been wanting to go hike around there for a while and they wanted to go too. So we used the path, which ran through a pretty field of dandelions, to climb up the smaller of the mountains then decided to climb down this mountain, in order to climb up the other one (they were not connected) it was a really fun climb down that ended in a little babbling brook. then we were on our way up, through a field of blooming pear trees and verrry steep dirt trail and finally, after a little heaving, at the top of the big mountain in the bright green grass and refreshing breeze. Aaaaah, serenity. The views all around were beautiful and it was nice to just lay there in the grass for a little while enjoying nature. After a few replenishing snacks, we spread out Jeremy’s stolen airplane blanket and played several games of hearts (which I am really beginning to enjoy.) We played 3 rounds or so and I ended up winning , having only accumulated 1 point. Andrew, who was also a beginner, came in second. Haha the novices conquer all. After that we began our climb down and back up and back down over both mountains and back to the real world where studio work awaited (but not for me!) we stopped at the mcDonalds at the bus stop for some more sustenance. I got a strawberry milkshake that didn’t compare to a Cookout milkshake, and thus gave half to Andrew. Wonderful morning and afternoon. I would love to return to that area if time allows me. Plan for tonight is movie at Flora mall (with popcorn!!)
I’ll be home in a week (…where has the semester gone?!)
Lauren
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Happy Easter!
Week recap
Monday
Sunny run, studio, I finished the script for our midsummer night’s dream performance, worked on costume, made chocolate chip cookies which were very successful.
Tuesday
Double beekeeping (9-12, 2-5) Dalibor wore a “Time is Honey” t-shirt. In the second session we hollowed out egg shells and used bee’s wax to draw designs on them, then painted over it in bright colors and peeled off the wax. These painted Easter eggs are a big Czech tradition. (my eggs have been hidden on my desk, as my poor attempts would probably insult this tradition more than celebrate it)
Wednesday
Studio, then visited the space where we will put on our performance/fashion show. It looks really cool and has some old Greek statues in it (very appropriate for the play.) I walked around old town square after that, (in the bright warm sunshine!!) and perused some of the shops they have set up there. I finished my costume later on and made some more cookies.
Thursday
Studio, then Fashion History where we studied 1900-1950. I spent most of the day making a dress (that actually turned out really well!) out of some leftover material I had. When I got back to the penzion, I decided I could go for a beer. I drank about ¾ of the bottle then passed out on my bed… in all my clothes (this was about 10pm mind you, and yes I am aware of how pathetic that is) I woke up about an hour later a little bewildered and decided since everyone else was going out (and I was clearly not in the condition to do so) that I would sew some pockets on my dress. Good decision, they look pretty cute.
Friday
Zoo Praha! Awoken to another gorgeous sunny 67 degree day in Prague, we continued with our plans to visit the city zoo. After a metro ride and a bus ride packed with mini zoo-goers in strollers, (we made friends with a few leg pokers) we got to the zoo around 10:15. We saw the usual boring
bird exhibits, lots of goat/yak creatures, and lots of deer/elks. We saw the lions, tigers, hippos, flamingos etc. But the highlights for me were definitely the adorable sea otters splashing around, the pokey elephants, and the GIRAFFES! They were far way from everything else but it was so peaceful to watch them roam around in their big field, occasionally creeping close to us. Down inside the building there, they had more giraffes that were cooped up inside a glass pen. It was really cool to see them so close up but it made me sad because there were five of them all penned up in this small circular room, with barely anywhere to move. Hopefully they don’t leave them in there too long. There was a baby in there that was adorable, and in the pen over there was a huge giraffe laying down that we were pretty sure was Preggers. They were all so pretty and majestic, I could have sat and watched them all day. Another highlight w
as watching a brigade of long-tailed moneys prowl over to a gathering of ducks and chase them off their turf. They were very sneaky and funny. We also saw a polar bear who may have lost his mind. He was pacing back and forth at the top of his exhibit and kept banging on a steel door there. I thought he was just waiting for food, but this went on for several hours, because we kept passing it. So either someone forgot to feed him or the poor thing just lost it. I sort of forget how depressing zoo’s can be. It was still a nice day outside with nature though.
We left around 3:30 and Jessica Eleanor and I headed to Mala Strana to check our Petrin Hill. We began our hike up the cobblestones, and quickly realized that this hill was less hill, more mountain, so we stopped at a little market for some sustenance. We stopped
on a little grassy knoll to munch on our grapes and Tostitos, met hairy dog with a butterfly clip on its head, then continued our trek upwards. We tackled a lot of steps on our way up, but the view of the city was so beautiful as we went that I thought it was more than worth it (plus I really enjoyed the exercise.) We made it to the top, (hooray!) and were greeted with a bustling little green of activities. We ended up right under the observation tower, which was modeled after the Eiffel tower in Paris (though only ¼ it’s height). To our right was a beer garden, to the 
left was the Strahov Monastery, the Church of St. Lawrence and a Mirror maze. We snapped a few pictures of everything then had a go at the mirror maze. Turns out, the maze part was pretty easy, but it was still cool to walk around and take pictures with all the mirrors. We saw a historic painting in the next room then got to the fun house mirrors. We probably spent the most time here, as we found the simple distortions of our bodies immensely amusing. Snapped some funny pictures there, then walked through an arch in what we think was the Hunger Wall, to the other side of the hill. There was a nice green lawn here, ideal for cart-wheeling (which I quickly learned was not even a little bit feasible in the dress I was wearing, Eleanor unfortunately has evidence) We ran into Terry and Blakely here (apparently my incidental flashing alerted them to our presence) and told them to go do the mirror maze. Jess, Eleanor and I sat and played “Lime” in the grass for a little while, then move
d along. We found where the rose garden would be, if there had been roses, and took silly pictures under a tree blooming with pretty white flowers. We copped a few flowers from the tree and the many forsythia bushes for our hair, then made our way down the hill via The Funicular Tram (which we failed to notice on our way up.) we hopped a city tram home after that and got some Gelato at the tram stop. A wonderful day in Prague altogether, but then any day that ends in ice cream is hard to beat.
After a much needed shower and nap, we did a little boozing and headed to a music bar (club) that Ben picked out called Futurum. We had some minor trouble finding it, but the fact that it was 80’s night quickly made up for this. I arrived home to chirping birds at 3:30 am. Tough day to beat.
Saturday
Woke up and began making plans for dinner on the River. After sifting though several bank breaking restaurants. I made a reservation at Hergatova Cihelna. After that I set out on a lone advent
ure through Mala Strana (Little Quarter) which has become one of my favorite areas of Prague. I wondered a bit and perused a few shops then walked right through my destination of Kampa Island without realizing it. I checked out another Island called Streleky Ostrov which had a great few of the Charles bridge, then headed back to Kampa Park for a nap in the sun. It was nice to lay in the sun for a little while and just people watch. There was a little kid who rolled around in circles on the ground, yelling in Czech for about 15 minutes who I found pretty entertaining. After a “poke check” of my skin returned positive for sun exposure I made my way back to the metro. I got off a mustek for a brief flip flop hunt, that ended unsuccessfully, then went back to the penzion to shower and spiff up for dinner.
Our restaurant was in Mala Strana as well, right next to the Franz Kafka museum, and the infamous peeing statue/fountain outside of it. (apparently you can send a text message to some number and the statue will pee/spell out your message in the water…) anyways we were seated on the terrace, as requested, and the view wa
s phenomenal, the lights shining off the river and the Charles bridges ½ a mile away. Sighhh. The menu was a little expensive, but nothing compared to the other places we looked out, and with the wonderful atmosphere it was worth it. We had a candlelit dinner, with snuggly blankets provided, though they were hardly needed; it was a gorgeous night. Our waitress was super nice and the food and wine was delicious. I had red wine with Pasta Amatriciana. It was a great night. We ventured across the Charles bridge after dinner to cream and dream, a gelato place, then home to the penzion. Terry and I sat out on the penzion balcony for a long time. The lights of the city below were so pretty and there was a full yellow moon. The air was also just so nice I didn’t want to go inside…But I did eventually and I passed out in my clothes on my bed again. (to be fair, I had several glasses of wine at dinner and a full day in the sun, but yes its still pretty pathetic) I woke up at 1am, bewildered again, brushed my teeth, changed into pj’s and went back to sleep. Another great day enjoying Prague :)
Lauren
Monday
Sunny run, studio, I finished the script for our midsummer night’s dream performance, worked on costume, made chocolate chip cookies which were very successful.
Tuesday
Double beekeeping (9-12, 2-5) Dalibor wore a “Time is Honey” t-shirt. In the second session we hollowed out egg shells and used bee’s wax to draw designs on them, then painted over it in bright colors and peeled off the wax. These painted Easter eggs are a big Czech tradition. (my eggs have been hidden on my desk, as my poor attempts would probably insult this tradition more than celebrate it)
Wednesday
Studio, then visited the space where we will put on our performance/fashion show. It looks really cool and has some old Greek statues in it (very appropriate for the play.) I walked around old town square after that, (in the bright warm sunshine!!) and perused some of the shops they have set up there. I finished my costume later on and made some more cookies.
Thursday
Studio, then Fashion History where we studied 1900-1950. I spent most of the day making a dress (that actually turned out really well!) out of some leftover material I had. When I got back to the penzion, I decided I could go for a beer. I drank about ¾ of the bottle then passed out on my bed… in all my clothes (this was about 10pm mind you, and yes I am aware of how pathetic that is) I woke up about an hour later a little bewildered and decided since everyone else was going out (and I was clearly not in the condition to do so) that I would sew some pockets on my dress. Good decision, they look pretty cute.
Friday
Zoo Praha! Awoken to another gorgeous sunny 67 degree day in Prague, we continued with our plans to visit the city zoo. After a metro ride and a bus ride packed with mini zoo-goers in strollers, (we made friends with a few leg pokers) we got to the zoo around 10:15. We saw the usual boring
bird exhibits, lots of goat/yak creatures, and lots of deer/elks. We saw the lions, tigers, hippos, flamingos etc. But the highlights for me were definitely the adorable sea otters splashing around, the pokey elephants, and the GIRAFFES! They were far way from everything else but it was so peaceful to watch them roam around in their big field, occasionally creeping close to us. Down inside the building there, they had more giraffes that were cooped up inside a glass pen. It was really cool to see them so close up but it made me sad because there were five of them all penned up in this small circular room, with barely anywhere to move. Hopefully they don’t leave them in there too long. There was a baby in there that was adorable, and in the pen over there was a huge giraffe laying down that we were pretty sure was Preggers. They were all so pretty and majestic, I could have sat and watched them all day. Another highlight w
as watching a brigade of long-tailed moneys prowl over to a gathering of ducks and chase them off their turf. They were very sneaky and funny. We also saw a polar bear who may have lost his mind. He was pacing back and forth at the top of his exhibit and kept banging on a steel door there. I thought he was just waiting for food, but this went on for several hours, because we kept passing it. So either someone forgot to feed him or the poor thing just lost it. I sort of forget how depressing zoo’s can be. It was still a nice day outside with nature though.We left around 3:30 and Jessica Eleanor and I headed to Mala Strana to check our Petrin Hill. We began our hike up the cobblestones, and quickly realized that this hill was less hill, more mountain, so we stopped at a little market for some sustenance. We stopped
on a little grassy knoll to munch on our grapes and Tostitos, met hairy dog with a butterfly clip on its head, then continued our trek upwards. We tackled a lot of steps on our way up, but the view of the city was so beautiful as we went that I thought it was more than worth it (plus I really enjoyed the exercise.) We made it to the top, (hooray!) and were greeted with a bustling little green of activities. We ended up right under the observation tower, which was modeled after the Eiffel tower in Paris (though only ¼ it’s height). To our right was a beer garden, to the 
left was the Strahov Monastery, the Church of St. Lawrence and a Mirror maze. We snapped a few pictures of everything then had a go at the mirror maze. Turns out, the maze part was pretty easy, but it was still cool to walk around and take pictures with all the mirrors. We saw a historic painting in the next room then got to the fun house mirrors. We probably spent the most time here, as we found the simple distortions of our bodies immensely amusing. Snapped some funny pictures there, then walked through an arch in what we think was the Hunger Wall, to the other side of the hill. There was a nice green lawn here, ideal for cart-wheeling (which I quickly learned was not even a little bit feasible in the dress I was wearing, Eleanor unfortunately has evidence) We ran into Terry and Blakely here (apparently my incidental flashing alerted them to our presence) and told them to go do the mirror maze. Jess, Eleanor and I sat and played “Lime” in the grass for a little while, then move
d along. We found where the rose garden would be, if there had been roses, and took silly pictures under a tree blooming with pretty white flowers. We copped a few flowers from the tree and the many forsythia bushes for our hair, then made our way down the hill via The Funicular Tram (which we failed to notice on our way up.) we hopped a city tram home after that and got some Gelato at the tram stop. A wonderful day in Prague altogether, but then any day that ends in ice cream is hard to beat.After a much needed shower and nap, we did a little boozing and headed to a music bar (club) that Ben picked out called Futurum. We had some minor trouble finding it, but the fact that it was 80’s night quickly made up for this. I arrived home to chirping birds at 3:30 am. Tough day to beat.
Saturday
Woke up and began making plans for dinner on the River. After sifting though several bank breaking restaurants. I made a reservation at Hergatova Cihelna. After that I set out on a lone advent
ure through Mala Strana (Little Quarter) which has become one of my favorite areas of Prague. I wondered a bit and perused a few shops then walked right through my destination of Kampa Island without realizing it. I checked out another Island called Streleky Ostrov which had a great few of the Charles bridge, then headed back to Kampa Park for a nap in the sun. It was nice to lay in the sun for a little while and just people watch. There was a little kid who rolled around in circles on the ground, yelling in Czech for about 15 minutes who I found pretty entertaining. After a “poke check” of my skin returned positive for sun exposure I made my way back to the metro. I got off a mustek for a brief flip flop hunt, that ended unsuccessfully, then went back to the penzion to shower and spiff up for dinner.Our restaurant was in Mala Strana as well, right next to the Franz Kafka museum, and the infamous peeing statue/fountain outside of it. (apparently you can send a text message to some number and the statue will pee/spell out your message in the water…) anyways we were seated on the terrace, as requested, and the view wa
s phenomenal, the lights shining off the river and the Charles bridges ½ a mile away. Sighhh. The menu was a little expensive, but nothing compared to the other places we looked out, and with the wonderful atmosphere it was worth it. We had a candlelit dinner, with snuggly blankets provided, though they were hardly needed; it was a gorgeous night. Our waitress was super nice and the food and wine was delicious. I had red wine with Pasta Amatriciana. It was a great night. We ventured across the Charles bridge after dinner to cream and dream, a gelato place, then home to the penzion. Terry and I sat out on the penzion balcony for a long time. The lights of the city below were so pretty and there was a full yellow moon. The air was also just so nice I didn’t want to go inside…But I did eventually and I passed out in my clothes on my bed again. (to be fair, I had several glasses of wine at dinner and a full day in the sun, but yes its still pretty pathetic) I woke up at 1am, bewildered again, brushed my teeth, changed into pj’s and went back to sleep. Another great day enjoying Prague :)Lauren
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Amsterdam!
Thursday 4/2
Our group of 6 (Anna, Rima, Eleanor, Blakeley, Jessica and myself) left drawing early to catch our flight at 7:00pm. The flight was less than two hours but felt like two minutes because I passed out completely for all of it. We took a 20 minute train from the airport to centre city, and then we were ther
e! in the awesomeness of Amsterdam! Our hotel was Called the Heart of Amsterdam, and they certainly weren’t kidding about the name. We wandered around for a little while from the train station, and when we found the hotel we were smack (and I mean smack) in the middle of the red light district. I’m talking brothels and hookers next door, across the street and as far as you could see in pretty much any direction, not to mention sex shops, sex shows, peep shows, porn theatres, “coffee” shops and bars. It was pretty crazy, but we had a fun time walking around and just taking it all in. Terry took us to a coffee shop called the Jolly Joker to try some of the local flavor, then we went to dinner at a little hamburger place th
at served Obamaburgers. We walked around a little more after that and began to notice that all the bars and coffee shops close before the sex shops and peep shows. Interesting. We headed back to our 007 room in the hotel after that (all of the rooms have a different movie theme, pretty sweet - I’m sleeping under Sean Connery’s head)
Friday 4/3
We woke up to an extensive breakfast in the hotel, from which we also prepared lunch sneakily. Then we checked out and were off to find our next hostel (we booked a different one each night to get the full experience of Amsterdam) We pa
ssed the morning shift of the red light district on our way out. The walk took a long while, because we had a fairly large group and some seriously slow walkers (then again I’m a little biased because I walk like a “city girl” as terry says) But we got to Okay Stay eventually and dropped our stuff off. Then it was off to play in the sun!!! we were right across from Vondelpark which was huge and pretty, so Jessica and I started walking through there, taking pictures, envying puppies, climbing trees etc. It was a very nice stroll. After that we perused the shops on Leidse
plein Stratte, which were adorable but very expensive. Then we had lunch at a little place with outdoor seating on the canal, and the sun was wonderful and felt amazing. After lunch we went on a hunt for “space cakes” and found some at a coffee shop called “The Rookies” (which we thought was very appropriate.) so we ate those and then rented a paddle boat, or “canal bike” to cruise the canals. Being on the canal was a lot of fun, but paddling always gets tiring after a while and our boat was crazy hard to steer. I had to practically climb on top of the steering stick to keep the thing going straight, and forget it if we had to swerve on-coming boat traffic, we were goners who got honked at big time. (and no it was not because of the space cakes, other people were struggling too) After our hour + of paddling we trekked back to the hostel to meet the others for dinner.
We went to The Bulldog (Amsterdam’s biggest and most renown coffee shop chain) before dinner then around the corner to Ristorante Italiano where I had pasta filled with spinach and ricotta in tomato cream sauce. Stellar. We got some ben and Jerry’s after that and went back to the hostel to get ready for the evening. Unfortunately Jessica, Rima and myself never saw the rest of the evening because we accidentally passed out in our clothes while everyone one else was drinking and getting ready. (we think the space cakes might have kicked in reallllly late.) but it was a busy, fun day, and we were also just really tired.
Saturday 4/4
We woke up Saturday to another big breakfast spread, in cool old part of the hostel. Seeing that they had chocolate sprinkles available I decided to try the traditional Dutch breakfast of hagelslag, which is essentially buttered toast with chocolate sprinkles on top. It was pretty much what you would
expect it to be, different, but not bad. After breakfast and another stealthy lunch preparation, we began our trek to our third hostel -Intersail- on a boat! After some fine navigation on my part we arrived on the dock of Christina, where Tony the boat master sent us one dock over to stay on Waterland. Both boats were tiny creaky and cute, and the smell/feel reminded me of Fisher’s Island in Connecticut a little bit. Our rooms were tiny little bunks but I really liked the whole set up, very cool and boaty. We dropped our stuff discussed plans for the day and headed out. We didn’t get far before we ran into Terry and Blakeley, who we had lost to a coffee shop along the way. They were very happy to see us , since they had no clue what or where our hotel was.
Jess and I began exploring and found a flea market on Waterlooplein that Rima had
mentioned. We shopped through there for a while. I bought a hippyish shirt and an awesome bicycle bell, jess bought a “leather” jacket for 19 Euro. We stopped in a café/restaurant to get warm (the awesome sunny weather of Friday decided not sleepover.) and eat lunch. (I ate my smuggled lunch from breakfast) we stopped in a little shop next door and I bought some stroopwaffles which are another Dutch specialty consisting of two very thin waffle wafers with some sort of caramel stuff spread in the middle. Very tasty. After that we wandered around some more, came across the botanical gardens, which had sadly just closed, but we peeked in and it looked pretty. We stopped in a spirits shop on our way back to the boat and bought some awesome Spanish wine before meeting the others for dinner. We had a glass of our Rotwein/Leiblich 2007 Vinto Tinto from Valencia then went to “Jasmine Thai Food” for dinner. I had a plate of fried rice for 2.50 Euro and realized it was the cheapest meal I’ve had in Europe outside the Czech Republic (besides my smuggled lunches.) After dinner we played some scrabble and hearts on the boat, then some of us walked over to the red light district to wander around again. A few people decided to catch a sex show for 25 Euro, but I decided it wasn’t for me and headed back to the boat.
Sunday 4/5
Another day another awesome breakfast, this time with fresh fruit. :) We packed up our stuff, bid our captain (I never got his name but he was an interesting fellow) farewell, and walked to the train station to store our luggage in lockers for the day. After that we rented bikes from Orange Bike, and began our leisurely ride through the city. My seat was just about an inch or two too high for me( toes justtt barely touched the ground) so I had trouble stopping throughout the day with out falling over. We rode to terry’s new hostel (he stayed a day later than us) so he could drop his stuff, then to Dam square where we got separated by the crowds. Jess and I continued biking and found ourselves in a pretty little park with tons of daffodils we poked around there for a while, then realized that we were right across the street from the Heineken Brewery. Heineken is evidently a Dutch beer that originated in Amsterdam. Cool! So we went in there, learned about the history of the beer, bottom fermentation, their special ‘A’ yeas
t strain, and that we were at Stadhouderskade the second brewery established. We ventured into a big room with tanks, where we tasted the wo
rt of the beer, (water and barley) not so tasty. I decided it would be fun to climb in one of the fermentation tanks for a photo (they were fake and empty!) so I did, and managed to be sneaky enough that no one really noticed (not an easy feat for me.) After that Jessica and I got to ‘be the beer” in the Heineken 4-D experience. We traveled through the brewing process and got jostled, sprayed and fanned a lot, but it was cute. After that we did a tasting of two week old Heineken and observed the golden color caused by the barley. Jess and I made a Dutch music video in the next room, which failed to send to our emails :( then we watched funny Heineken commercials from the 50’s, 80’s etc in cool chairs (which I later banged my head on) after that came old posters, videos, advertising history (partnership with James Bond movies) and finally….BEER! We got two big glasses of beer either extra cold or regular, I had one of each then snatched the glasses, as I deemed that they must be included in the 15 Euro entrance fee, as otherwise that fee is pure extortion. We had a swervy bike ride back to the rental place after that. Then popped into a Mexican restaurant called Guadalupe for some soup before our trip home. Train station after that, some minor passport troubles for Blakeley which were luckily resolved, then another unconscious plain ride home. :) awesome weekend!
Lauren
Our group of 6 (Anna, Rima, Eleanor, Blakeley, Jessica and myself) left drawing early to catch our flight at 7:00pm. The flight was less than two hours but felt like two minutes because I passed out completely for all of it. We took a 20 minute train from the airport to centre city, and then we were ther
e! in the awesomeness of Amsterdam! Our hotel was Called the Heart of Amsterdam, and they certainly weren’t kidding about the name. We wandered around for a little while from the train station, and when we found the hotel we were smack (and I mean smack) in the middle of the red light district. I’m talking brothels and hookers next door, across the street and as far as you could see in pretty much any direction, not to mention sex shops, sex shows, peep shows, porn theatres, “coffee” shops and bars. It was pretty crazy, but we had a fun time walking around and just taking it all in. Terry took us to a coffee shop called the Jolly Joker to try some of the local flavor, then we went to dinner at a little hamburger place th
at served Obamaburgers. We walked around a little more after that and began to notice that all the bars and coffee shops close before the sex shops and peep shows. Interesting. We headed back to our 007 room in the hotel after that (all of the rooms have a different movie theme, pretty sweet - I’m sleeping under Sean Connery’s head)Friday 4/3
We woke up to an extensive breakfast in the hotel, from which we also prepared lunch sneakily. Then we checked out and were off to find our next hostel (we booked a different one each night to get the full experience of Amsterdam) We pa
ssed the morning shift of the red light district on our way out. The walk took a long while, because we had a fairly large group and some seriously slow walkers (then again I’m a little biased because I walk like a “city girl” as terry says) But we got to Okay Stay eventually and dropped our stuff off. Then it was off to play in the sun!!! we were right across from Vondelpark which was huge and pretty, so Jessica and I started walking through there, taking pictures, envying puppies, climbing trees etc. It was a very nice stroll. After that we perused the shops on Leidse
plein Stratte, which were adorable but very expensive. Then we had lunch at a little place with outdoor seating on the canal, and the sun was wonderful and felt amazing. After lunch we went on a hunt for “space cakes” and found some at a coffee shop called “The Rookies” (which we thought was very appropriate.) so we ate those and then rented a paddle boat, or “canal bike” to cruise the canals. Being on the canal was a lot of fun, but paddling always gets tiring after a while and our boat was crazy hard to steer. I had to practically climb on top of the steering stick to keep the thing going straight, and forget it if we had to swerve on-coming boat traffic, we were goners who got honked at big time. (and no it was not because of the space cakes, other people were struggling too) After our hour + of paddling we trekked back to the hostel to meet the others for dinner.We went to The Bulldog (Amsterdam’s biggest and most renown coffee shop chain) before dinner then around the corner to Ristorante Italiano where I had pasta filled with spinach and ricotta in tomato cream sauce. Stellar. We got some ben and Jerry’s after that and went back to the hostel to get ready for the evening. Unfortunately Jessica, Rima and myself never saw the rest of the evening because we accidentally passed out in our clothes while everyone one else was drinking and getting ready. (we think the space cakes might have kicked in reallllly late.) but it was a busy, fun day, and we were also just really tired.
Saturday 4/4
We woke up Saturday to another big breakfast spread, in cool old part of the hostel. Seeing that they had chocolate sprinkles available I decided to try the traditional Dutch breakfast of hagelslag, which is essentially buttered toast with chocolate sprinkles on top. It was pretty much what you would
expect it to be, different, but not bad. After breakfast and another stealthy lunch preparation, we began our trek to our third hostel -Intersail- on a boat! After some fine navigation on my part we arrived on the dock of Christina, where Tony the boat master sent us one dock over to stay on Waterland. Both boats were tiny creaky and cute, and the smell/feel reminded me of Fisher’s Island in Connecticut a little bit. Our rooms were tiny little bunks but I really liked the whole set up, very cool and boaty. We dropped our stuff discussed plans for the day and headed out. We didn’t get far before we ran into Terry and Blakeley, who we had lost to a coffee shop along the way. They were very happy to see us , since they had no clue what or where our hotel was.Jess and I began exploring and found a flea market on Waterlooplein that Rima had
mentioned. We shopped through there for a while. I bought a hippyish shirt and an awesome bicycle bell, jess bought a “leather” jacket for 19 Euro. We stopped in a café/restaurant to get warm (the awesome sunny weather of Friday decided not sleepover.) and eat lunch. (I ate my smuggled lunch from breakfast) we stopped in a little shop next door and I bought some stroopwaffles which are another Dutch specialty consisting of two very thin waffle wafers with some sort of caramel stuff spread in the middle. Very tasty. After that we wandered around some more, came across the botanical gardens, which had sadly just closed, but we peeked in and it looked pretty. We stopped in a spirits shop on our way back to the boat and bought some awesome Spanish wine before meeting the others for dinner. We had a glass of our Rotwein/Leiblich 2007 Vinto Tinto from Valencia then went to “Jasmine Thai Food” for dinner. I had a plate of fried rice for 2.50 Euro and realized it was the cheapest meal I’ve had in Europe outside the Czech Republic (besides my smuggled lunches.) After dinner we played some scrabble and hearts on the boat, then some of us walked over to the red light district to wander around again. A few people decided to catch a sex show for 25 Euro, but I decided it wasn’t for me and headed back to the boat.Sunday 4/5
Another day another awesome breakfast, this time with fresh fruit. :) We packed up our stuff, bid our captain (I never got his name but he was an interesting fellow) farewell, and walked to the train station to store our luggage in lockers for the day. After that we rented bikes from Orange Bike, and began our leisurely ride through the city. My seat was just about an inch or two too high for me( toes justtt barely touched the ground) so I had trouble stopping throughout the day with out falling over. We rode to terry’s new hostel (he stayed a day later than us) so he could drop his stuff, then to Dam square where we got separated by the crowds. Jess and I continued biking and found ourselves in a pretty little park with tons of daffodils we poked around there for a while, then realized that we were right across the street from the Heineken Brewery. Heineken is evidently a Dutch beer that originated in Amsterdam. Cool! So we went in there, learned about the history of the beer, bottom fermentation, their special ‘A’ yeas
t strain, and that we were at Stadhouderskade the second brewery established. We ventured into a big room with tanks, where we tasted the wo
rt of the beer, (water and barley) not so tasty. I decided it would be fun to climb in one of the fermentation tanks for a photo (they were fake and empty!) so I did, and managed to be sneaky enough that no one really noticed (not an easy feat for me.) After that Jessica and I got to ‘be the beer” in the Heineken 4-D experience. We traveled through the brewing process and got jostled, sprayed and fanned a lot, but it was cute. After that we did a tasting of two week old Heineken and observed the golden color caused by the barley. Jess and I made a Dutch music video in the next room, which failed to send to our emails :( then we watched funny Heineken commercials from the 50’s, 80’s etc in cool chairs (which I later banged my head on) after that came old posters, videos, advertising history (partnership with James Bond movies) and finally….BEER! We got two big glasses of beer either extra cold or regular, I had one of each then snatched the glasses, as I deemed that they must be included in the 15 Euro entrance fee, as otherwise that fee is pure extortion. We had a swervy bike ride back to the rental place after that. Then popped into a Mexican restaurant called Guadalupe for some soup before our trip home. Train station after that, some minor passport troubles for Blakeley which were luckily resolved, then another unconscious plain ride home. :) awesome weekend!Lauren
Monday, April 6, 2009
Rest of Week
So Wednesday (4/1)was the first of many hectic days in studio. We are all sewing like crazy because we now have a midsummer night’s dream costume and a cocktail dress to make for the end of the program, which is less than three weeks away. Keep in mind that these were our only two projects for the semester and they were officially assigned only about a week ago. What were we supposed to be doing during the previous two months? No one seems to be sure. Also Nina and Ladya seem to think it’s helpful to scurry about studio yelling strings of “yes, yes, yes, yes!” and “oh no,no, no,no!” whilst providing us with plagiarized internet power points on fashion business (with of course nina’s spinning, flashing touches) to effectively waste our time. We also had a field trip to an art museum featuring paintings of 1700’s fashion for fashion history , which was cool. We saw some peacocks there.
Thursday (4/2) was a little less hectic, and more productive. I finished th
e vest part of my costume (it’s reversible!!) and started work on the dress. After studio I went for a walk through old town square which to my bewilderment was completely filled with shops, stands, food, games, decorations and people . Basically the Prague version of a state fair, minus the rides. Very crazy, very exciting, and steadily kickin’ until Easter Monday, whoo! It was also a sunny 60 degrees which had me in a fit of joy to begin with. Back at the institute we drew magazine figures in fashion illustration and then it was time for AMSTERDAM!
Too much excitement for one day.
Lauren
Thursday (4/2) was a little less hectic, and more productive. I finished th
e vest part of my costume (it’s reversible!!) and started work on the dress. After studio I went for a walk through old town square which to my bewilderment was completely filled with shops, stands, food, games, decorations and people . Basically the Prague version of a state fair, minus the rides. Very crazy, very exciting, and steadily kickin’ until Easter Monday, whoo! It was also a sunny 60 degrees which had me in a fit of joy to begin with. Back at the institute we drew magazine figures in fashion illustration and then it was time for AMSTERDAM!Too much excitement for one day.
Lauren
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Berlin continued...
next two days..
Sunday 3/29
Another grocery store yogurt breakfast. (the sill of our hotel window has become a mini-fridge for yogurt and beer - just the essentials.) We left the hotel at 10am (9am on the bod
y clock) and our whole group walked to the Pergammon museum. Where we saw a bunch of old Greek and Roman statues and art, Islamic art and textiles and a section on Greek mythology which I particularly enjoyed. On our way there we saw the Berliner Dom which is an awesomely ornate cathedral that was almost completely destroyed in WWII, and later restored, and the a big pretty gallery. After the museum we stopped in a flea market for a bratwurst lunch ( I’ve decided that I definitely prefer normal sized hot dogs, but globs of mustard helped) and then we shopped around a little bit, and I bought a really cute hat which helped keep me warm. We took a metro next, and
walked to a preserved area of the Berlin wall. It was a little enclosed area of no-mans land with sand and footprints in it still, not physically accessible to anyone. Berlin has a big theme of preserving parts of the past so they are not forgotten, which I think is great and more places should do it. We climbed up the tower across the street to see the aerial view of this place, then watched some history films in the exhibit downstairs. Eye opening, and tragic, yet ironically most of the group fell asleep. We walked down the block to see a reconstructed church from a bombing in 1965? It was again neat how they preserved some old parts of it when rebuilding.
We headed to Invaliden Park after that, where we saw and climbed up the “sinking wall” (absent of water ) and played on a nearby playground with monkey bars and more spinny things. Next we continued walk down to Kanzleramt which is a big spacey park area on the river with huge-scale buildings and pretty bridges. We also saw throughout the day, brick line running through the city that represents where the Berlin wall used to stand. After that we headed back toward the museum area and Jeremy, Laura-nelle, Gennie and I broke off from the group to get some coffee and snacks. We went to the main train station, Hosbaunhof, where I had a big bowl of fruit and bought some cookies for later, then we metro-ed back to the hotel around 7:30. A small group of us went to dinner around the corner at Alpenlandische Sperinlitnten at 8:00, where I had wildgoulashsuppe (all one word) which was sort of a small bowl of meat and gravy- interesting to say the least. Then we went back to the hostel and passed out around 11:30pm.
Monday 3/30
We woke up early and packed up all our stuff to store in the hotel basement, (more yogurt for breky) then trekked out to the Nueu National Gallery In Kulturforum (center of fine arts.) It was a gallery that seemed to be pretty empty but had some really cool sculptures around it. I really liked the kinetic one by Michael Riki? After that we went to the Bauhaus which is a famous German design school that was shut down during World War II, but was the learning/teaching environment of a lot of well-know artists. There were a lot of cool things to see there. We took a short bus ride to a city center area next to see The Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, which was bombed out during WWII but remains standing. We couldn’t go inside because it was closed but the view of the outside was pretty phenomenal in itself. We grabbed some cheap lunch from a little Asia stir-fry tent then watched a street show of guys performing crazy dance and skateboard moves to the tune of Thriller. It’s safe to say they put my dance moves to shame…and then some. We explored a few souvenir shops after that and a bunch of the guys bought 5 Euro suspenders with various silly themes on them. This was the point at which I placed Dave’s filthy rubber chicken “Alberti“ (which he found in the dirt of the railroad park on Friday) in a bag at the souvenir shop, as a joke, knowing he saw me take it. But apparently he was too distracted by his fish,/duck/gun suspenders to pay attention, so Alberti got left behind and I got the slack and dirty looks for it for the rest of the day, even though I probably saved Dave from some nasty disease like Chlamydia (that chicken was seriously gross.) We took the metro back to the hostel to get our luggage, then back to the main train station fo
r our 5:00pm train back to Prague. Things went smoothly from there and we got back to Prague around 9:30pm. A jam packed weekend, tired legs, and sweaty clothing, but a lovely German experience.
Tuesday consisted of a trip to the fabric store “Flex Tex” across town, and an exhilarating beekeeping class in which we learned that “Honey is Money” and all about breeding and selling Queen bees. I also sewed Dave a replacement Alberti (his more fashionable cousin, Alberto) for which he was very grateful.
Lauren
Sunday 3/29
Another grocery store yogurt breakfast. (the sill of our hotel window has become a mini-fridge for yogurt and beer - just the essentials.) We left the hotel at 10am (9am on the bod
y clock) and our whole group walked to the Pergammon museum. Where we saw a bunch of old Greek and Roman statues and art, Islamic art and textiles and a section on Greek mythology which I particularly enjoyed. On our way there we saw the Berliner Dom which is an awesomely ornate cathedral that was almost completely destroyed in WWII, and later restored, and the a big pretty gallery. After the museum we stopped in a flea market for a bratwurst lunch ( I’ve decided that I definitely prefer normal sized hot dogs, but globs of mustard helped) and then we shopped around a little bit, and I bought a really cute hat which helped keep me warm. We took a metro next, and
walked to a preserved area of the Berlin wall. It was a little enclosed area of no-mans land with sand and footprints in it still, not physically accessible to anyone. Berlin has a big theme of preserving parts of the past so they are not forgotten, which I think is great and more places should do it. We climbed up the tower across the street to see the aerial view of this place, then watched some history films in the exhibit downstairs. Eye opening, and tragic, yet ironically most of the group fell asleep. We walked down the block to see a reconstructed church from a bombing in 1965? It was again neat how they preserved some old parts of it when rebuilding.We headed to Invaliden Park after that, where we saw and climbed up the “sinking wall” (absent of water ) and played on a nearby playground with monkey bars and more spinny things. Next we continued walk down to Kanzleramt which is a big spacey park area on the river with huge-scale buildings and pretty bridges. We also saw throughout the day, brick line running through the city that represents where the Berlin wall used to stand. After that we headed back toward the museum area and Jeremy, Laura-nelle, Gennie and I broke off from the group to get some coffee and snacks. We went to the main train station, Hosbaunhof, where I had a big bowl of fruit and bought some cookies for later, then we metro-ed back to the hotel around 7:30. A small group of us went to dinner around the corner at Alpenlandische Sperinlitnten at 8:00, where I had wildgoulashsuppe (all one word) which was sort of a small bowl of meat and gravy- interesting to say the least. Then we went back to the hostel and passed out around 11:30pm.
Monday 3/30
We woke up early and packed up all our stuff to store in the hotel basement, (more yogurt for breky) then trekked out to the Nueu National Gallery In Kulturforum (center of fine arts.) It was a gallery that seemed to be pretty empty but had some really cool sculptures around it. I really liked the kinetic one by Michael Riki? After that we went to the Bauhaus which is a famous German design school that was shut down during World War II, but was the learning/teaching environment of a lot of well-know artists. There were a lot of cool things to see there. We took a short bus ride to a city center area next to see The Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, which was bombed out during WWII but remains standing. We couldn’t go inside because it was closed but the view of the outside was pretty phenomenal in itself. We grabbed some cheap lunch from a little Asia stir-fry tent then watched a street show of guys performing crazy dance and skateboard moves to the tune of Thriller. It’s safe to say they put my dance moves to shame…and then some. We explored a few souvenir shops after that and a bunch of the guys bought 5 Euro suspenders with various silly themes on them. This was the point at which I placed Dave’s filthy rubber chicken “Alberti“ (which he found in the dirt of the railroad park on Friday) in a bag at the souvenir shop, as a joke, knowing he saw me take it. But apparently he was too distracted by his fish,/duck/gun suspenders to pay attention, so Alberti got left behind and I got the slack and dirty looks for it for the rest of the day, even though I probably saved Dave from some nasty disease like Chlamydia (that chicken was seriously gross.) We took the metro back to the hostel to get our luggage, then back to the main train station fo
r our 5:00pm train back to Prague. Things went smoothly from there and we got back to Prague around 9:30pm. A jam packed weekend, tired legs, and sweaty clothing, but a lovely German experience.Tuesday consisted of a trip to the fabric store “Flex Tex” across town, and an exhilarating beekeeping class in which we learned that “Honey is Money” and all about breeding and selling Queen bees. I also sewed Dave a replacement Alberti (his more fashionable cousin, Alberto) for which he was very grateful.
Lauren
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Back From Berlin
The Landscape Architecture group had a pre-scheduled excursion to Berlin this weekend, and a bunch of us fashion girls decided to tag along. So worth it.
Friday 3/27
Our train left Prague around 9:30 on Friday morning, and after some lovely views of the Czech, and German countryside (complete with a field of serious power windmills) and an on and off 5 hour nap for me, we arrived around 1:30pm. From the train station we took the S-bahn (above ground metro system) to the very colorful Pegasus Hostel. After several frightening foreign arguments
between Nina and the desk clerk about key distribution and paying our bill we were able to check into our room and get settled. We hit the ATM next for some Euros, and the whole group met up around 3pm to follow 
Fernando (landscape professor) around Berlin. We took the U-bahn (underground metro system) to the Sudgeland Nature Park. This Park was an incredibly cool place, that actually used to be a bunch of rail way lines, or maybe a station type place, but its been out of use for ages and nature has taken over it. So basically its lots of old stuctures and tracks all encompassed by trees, grass, and general over growth, which some awesome sculpture and development worked in. It was very cool and pretty, especially with the setting sun sneaking between the trees. I only wish it had been warmer. So we walked though there for a while then turned around to walk back up the other side of the functioning track. There we encountered some German boys (eh..) and their Husky puppy (yesssss !!!!!!). His name was Hanky and his older black lab friend’s name was Rocco. And they were both adorable, and the puppy rolled over my shoe!!!! I almost fell over, I was so excited. But then we had to go so I said goodbye (while of course contemplating how I could explain a stolen husky puppy in my carryon luggage to the train conductors- I couldn’t come up with anything besides pretending to be blind, which would have been a disaster for both my shins and anyone in my path, so the puppy stayed)
Our next visit was to Potsdamer Platz which was a big commercial area of Berlin with awesome new buildings, bright neon lights and a ton of cool fountains, sculptures and public art. It was a very hip place that was awesome to see at night. After that we stopped for a quick (very non-German, to my disappointment) dinner in a food court, before continuing on with Fernando to a cool hippie, gallery place in another happening part of town. It was so happening in fact, that we encountered a new aspect of German culture. It began with one women dressed in high heels and a puffy coat with a corset over top. I thought this fashion choice was odd but we all continued walking, and after passing several more corseted women, the realization sank in that it was less of a fashion and more of a “uniform.” Yes, we walked down a street of jazzy restaurants and German hookers (the tally got up to about 22, within a 3 block distance) It was eye opening, but we all were pretty exited that we got to add German hookers to the list of crazy thin
gs we saw in Europe (face it, you would be too. ) So we hit up the very artsy, grungy, slightly dilapidated, gallery hippie place after that where we saw lots of cool Berlin/political/random themed collage work, some graffiti art and this cool little display room called Eroto Shop, featuring, you guessed it, sex themed art. The artist lady was even in there working on some stuff. Pretty cool overall. A few people and I signed one graffiti wall - probably the prudest thing we could do in the grand scheme of that place. We got back to our hostel around 10:30 and I tried my first German beer- a Warsteiner from the convenience store next door. Tasty, but pricier than Prague :( Exhaustion took over next.
Saturday 3/28
Saturday began with breakfast from the grocery store across the street, and tagging along with the LAR kids once again. We walked down the street a little bit a discovered we were staring at the Berlin Wal
l. (one of the parts that remains standing) we walked along it for a while snapping lots of pictures, (I tried to squeeze through one of the cracks in it to the other side-unsuccessfully) till it ended and we were at a very large bridge. It was old and ornate and looked very pretty with the shiny water and sunlight. After walking though the bridge (it was tunnel-like in design) to the other side we hopped on a metro to the Jewish museum. We didn’t actually go in the museum but, it was really cool because it has two parts. The old building, which was a traditional museum-like design, and the new part which was all metal, huge semi-star shaped with big gashes in the sides that served as windows. Very drastic differences and the new part is only accessible though an underground tunnel from the old part, pretty awesome conceptually. Around the outside of the museum there were some little metal play spinny things that we hopped on and immediately began abusing ourselves via warp-speed spinning, inevitably getting flung to the ground. Very hard 
core (my knuckle even bled a little.) After the ensuing Vertigo, we stopped at Dix Café, part of a another museum, for some quick lunch. I had potato Soup with Little slices of salmon in it. Perfect for the cold day.
After lunch we walked through a lot of neighborhood parks and Fernando talked about “space” to the LAR kids. Then we went to Check point Char
lie, which was the main American base/checkpoint along the Berlin wall in WWII. It was really cool to see and there were a lot of historical info plaques set up so we could learn more about it -People did some crazy things to get out of East Berlin. We stopped at a little tent/cart thing after that so the hungry boys could get some Bratwursts, then we were off to Potsdamer Platz again for the daytime view. We climbed up this cool triangle shaped hill outside of the main commercial center and got to watch a little screaming German boys run down the hill with his ice cream cone, only to fall and drop it at the bottom. We all saw it coming and I couldn’t have planned it out more perfectly in my head; the b
all of ice cream just plopped right off the top. It was pretty hilarious but he didn’t seem upset so we didn’t feel too bad laughing. Moving on. A few fashion girls and myself broke off from the group to get coffee and pastries, because we were cold and craving sweets. Then we met up with the group again to go to the Holocaust memorial. The memorial was amazing. It was basically tons of stone rectangles (slightly resembling tombs in size) all different heights, arranged in rows on varying levels of land. It was very stark looking, but walking though it was actually very playful because it provided the perfect hide and side and peek-a-boo arena. So, we shamelessly creeped around the stone blocks popping out at each other along with the rest of the tourists.
Our group moved down the road to the Brandenburg Tor next. This is the only remaining gate of a series that formerly entered Berlin. Now it leads into Unter den Linden which is the big boulevard of linden trees that we walked down next. Here we saw a green peace demonstration, which was a bunch
of people on trashcan drums. Pretty cool. One guy came over and explained to us that they were protesting/ spreading awareness about nuclear energy/power and the danger it poses to workers. He was very friendly. As we were walking down the street we stopped to watch a group of puppeteer people manipulating this life size stick figure guy for the crowds. they had some awesome choreography. It was fun to watch. After that we made our way back to the hostel, stopped at the supermarket for bee
r, took naps and got ready for the night. We went to the Biergarten next door for dinner, where I had a traditional wiener schnitzel (fried pork chop type deal) with potatoes and salad and a dark Kostriker beer. Sooo filling and delicious! We went back to the hostel to try our grocery store beer and then ventured out to a club down the street that was a really cool old building near the wall. We had lots of fun there, then realized around 2:45am that it was really 3:45am due to Europe daylight savings time, and promptly decided to leave. A very long and tiring day, with more ahead of us.
Lauren
Friday 3/27
Our train left Prague around 9:30 on Friday morning, and after some lovely views of the Czech, and German countryside (complete with a field of serious power windmills) and an on and off 5 hour nap for me, we arrived around 1:30pm. From the train station we took the S-bahn (above ground metro system) to the very colorful Pegasus Hostel. After several frightening foreign arguments
between Nina and the desk clerk about key distribution and paying our bill we were able to check into our room and get settled. We hit the ATM next for some Euros, and the whole group met up around 3pm to follow 
Fernando (landscape professor) around Berlin. We took the U-bahn (underground metro system) to the Sudgeland Nature Park. This Park was an incredibly cool place, that actually used to be a bunch of rail way lines, or maybe a station type place, but its been out of use for ages and nature has taken over it. So basically its lots of old stuctures and tracks all encompassed by trees, grass, and general over growth, which some awesome sculpture and development worked in. It was very cool and pretty, especially with the setting sun sneaking between the trees. I only wish it had been warmer. So we walked though there for a while then turned around to walk back up the other side of the functioning track. There we encountered some German boys (eh..) and their Husky puppy (yesssss !!!!!!). His name was Hanky and his older black lab friend’s name was Rocco. And they were both adorable, and the puppy rolled over my shoe!!!! I almost fell over, I was so excited. But then we had to go so I said goodbye (while of course contemplating how I could explain a stolen husky puppy in my carryon luggage to the train conductors- I couldn’t come up with anything besides pretending to be blind, which would have been a disaster for both my shins and anyone in my path, so the puppy stayed)Our next visit was to Potsdamer Platz which was a big commercial area of Berlin with awesome new buildings, bright neon lights and a ton of cool fountains, sculptures and public art. It was a very hip place that was awesome to see at night. After that we stopped for a quick (very non-German, to my disappointment) dinner in a food court, before continuing on with Fernando to a cool hippie, gallery place in another happening part of town. It was so happening in fact, that we encountered a new aspect of German culture. It began with one women dressed in high heels and a puffy coat with a corset over top. I thought this fashion choice was odd but we all continued walking, and after passing several more corseted women, the realization sank in that it was less of a fashion and more of a “uniform.” Yes, we walked down a street of jazzy restaurants and German hookers (the tally got up to about 22, within a 3 block distance) It was eye opening, but we all were pretty exited that we got to add German hookers to the list of crazy thin
gs we saw in Europe (face it, you would be too. ) So we hit up the very artsy, grungy, slightly dilapidated, gallery hippie place after that where we saw lots of cool Berlin/political/random themed collage work, some graffiti art and this cool little display room called Eroto Shop, featuring, you guessed it, sex themed art. The artist lady was even in there working on some stuff. Pretty cool overall. A few people and I signed one graffiti wall - probably the prudest thing we could do in the grand scheme of that place. We got back to our hostel around 10:30 and I tried my first German beer- a Warsteiner from the convenience store next door. Tasty, but pricier than Prague :( Exhaustion took over next.Saturday 3/28
Saturday began with breakfast from the grocery store across the street, and tagging along with the LAR kids once again. We walked down the street a little bit a discovered we were staring at the Berlin Wal
l. (one of the parts that remains standing) we walked along it for a while snapping lots of pictures, (I tried to squeeze through one of the cracks in it to the other side-unsuccessfully) till it ended and we were at a very large bridge. It was old and ornate and looked very pretty with the shiny water and sunlight. After walking though the bridge (it was tunnel-like in design) to the other side we hopped on a metro to the Jewish museum. We didn’t actually go in the museum but, it was really cool because it has two parts. The old building, which was a traditional museum-like design, and the new part which was all metal, huge semi-star shaped with big gashes in the sides that served as windows. Very drastic differences and the new part is only accessible though an underground tunnel from the old part, pretty awesome conceptually. Around the outside of the museum there were some little metal play spinny things that we hopped on and immediately began abusing ourselves via warp-speed spinning, inevitably getting flung to the ground. Very hard 
core (my knuckle even bled a little.) After the ensuing Vertigo, we stopped at Dix Café, part of a another museum, for some quick lunch. I had potato Soup with Little slices of salmon in it. Perfect for the cold day.After lunch we walked through a lot of neighborhood parks and Fernando talked about “space” to the LAR kids. Then we went to Check point Char
lie, which was the main American base/checkpoint along the Berlin wall in WWII. It was really cool to see and there were a lot of historical info plaques set up so we could learn more about it -People did some crazy things to get out of East Berlin. We stopped at a little tent/cart thing after that so the hungry boys could get some Bratwursts, then we were off to Potsdamer Platz again for the daytime view. We climbed up this cool triangle shaped hill outside of the main commercial center and got to watch a little screaming German boys run down the hill with his ice cream cone, only to fall and drop it at the bottom. We all saw it coming and I couldn’t have planned it out more perfectly in my head; the b
all of ice cream just plopped right off the top. It was pretty hilarious but he didn’t seem upset so we didn’t feel too bad laughing. Moving on. A few fashion girls and myself broke off from the group to get coffee and pastries, because we were cold and craving sweets. Then we met up with the group again to go to the Holocaust memorial. The memorial was amazing. It was basically tons of stone rectangles (slightly resembling tombs in size) all different heights, arranged in rows on varying levels of land. It was very stark looking, but walking though it was actually very playful because it provided the perfect hide and side and peek-a-boo arena. So, we shamelessly creeped around the stone blocks popping out at each other along with the rest of the tourists.Our group moved down the road to the Brandenburg Tor next. This is the only remaining gate of a series that formerly entered Berlin. Now it leads into Unter den Linden which is the big boulevard of linden trees that we walked down next. Here we saw a green peace demonstration, which was a bunch
of people on trashcan drums. Pretty cool. One guy came over and explained to us that they were protesting/ spreading awareness about nuclear energy/power and the danger it poses to workers. He was very friendly. As we were walking down the street we stopped to watch a group of puppeteer people manipulating this life size stick figure guy for the crowds. they had some awesome choreography. It was fun to watch. After that we made our way back to the hostel, stopped at the supermarket for bee
r, took naps and got ready for the night. We went to the Biergarten next door for dinner, where I had a traditional wiener schnitzel (fried pork chop type deal) with potatoes and salad and a dark Kostriker beer. Sooo filling and delicious! We went back to the hostel to try our grocery store beer and then ventured out to a club down the street that was a really cool old building near the wall. We had lots of fun there, then realized around 2:45am that it was really 3:45am due to Europe daylight savings time, and promptly decided to leave. A very long and tiring day, with more ahead of us.Lauren
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Tour de Studio
Entrance area
Computer area outside kitchen and common room
The very cramped kitchen
The one and only classroom
Our studio space 
My desk
Middle o' March
Here are the highlights of the last 2 weeks
Tuesday - Double beekeeping session, visited bee supplies shop near studio -cool beeswax candles and honey wine (mead). Blakeley develops rare puking disease from eating a chestnut.
Wednesday - puking disease continues, I remain unaffected
Thursday - I made banana bread which earned more yummy noises from the troops (and myself). We worked on our body blocks in studio. Blakeley emerges from toilet for the first time in 2 days. Gennie develops puking disease.
Friday - no class, Jeremy and I ventured to the top of the metronome/skate park, saw beautiful view of the city as I mumbled curses under my breath for not charging my camera batteries. We continued wandering about Narodni Tridu, and I got a strawberry milkshake at Café Imperial. I also tried fried cheese (glorified mozzarella stick in sandwich form) from Wenceslas Square earlier in the day. Gennie continues puking.
Saturday - Sunshine! and mild temperatures! I had a very good run around town. Later on a group of 8 of us went to U Fleku, Prague’s oldest brewery. Their beer was very tasty, and the atmosphere was very cool and old beer hall-esque, but it was a very touristy place and their prices reflected it. Also, one of the waiters got very agitated when we wouldn’t take the shots he was offering us (we found out beforehand that they weren’t free and are a bit of a trap) but he went away eventually mumbling about “tradition.” We met up with the rest of the group at a sports bar after that
for the beginnings of March Madness. The place had cheap beer and paintings of famous American rock and rollers on the wall (thumbs up!). I had a fit of delight when I saw Bruce up there too :) (also, the puking disease appears to have died with Gennie.)
Sunday - I organized my registration stuff for the fall and made spaetsel for dinner.
Monday - packed for unplanned trip home and finished up sketchy leprechaun preparations
Tuesday-Sunday - early flight home and a week of family time.
Monday - back in Prague after a 6 hour layover in Heathrow due to an idiot security guy, who wouldn’t let me jump in line to make it to my flight. Luckily, the British Airways costumer service lady was very nice and gave me a food voucher along with my new flight which made the wait less painful. Made it back in time to sprint (in heels on cobblestones!) to the opera house with Jeremy, who had kindly waited for me with a ticket. We arrived 2 minutes too late for the 7pm door closing, but ran into the rest of the group at the café across the street with news that the show actually began at 8 and everyone had been misinformed. Hooray! So I was able to see the whole show which was nice but unfortunately my 16 hours of sleepless travel caught up with me in the plush chairs of the warm theatre, and I caught myself dozing off several times during each act. I’m still glad I was able to go though, the theatre itself was incredibly old and beautiful on the inside.
Tuesday - sleeeeep, rest, dinner, made fun-fetti cake (which Terry coined “America Cake”), shared it with ecstatic studio members, 80’s workout in room with Blakeley, shower, more sleep.
Today - doing some serious work in studio (only 4 ½ weeks left!) and Nina is officially obsessed with powerpoint effects. We spend more time watching pictures spin and glitter on the screen than we do learning why they are important.
In other news, our whole group is headed to Berlin on Friday morning for a long weekend. Cant wait!
Lauren
Tuesday - Double beekeeping session, visited bee supplies shop near studio -cool beeswax candles and honey wine (mead). Blakeley develops rare puking disease from eating a chestnut.
Wednesday - puking disease continues, I remain unaffected
Thursday - I made banana bread which earned more yummy noises from the troops (and myself). We worked on our body blocks in studio. Blakeley emerges from toilet for the first time in 2 days. Gennie develops puking disease.
Friday - no class, Jeremy and I ventured to the top of the metronome/skate park, saw beautiful view of the city as I mumbled curses under my breath for not charging my camera batteries. We continued wandering about Narodni Tridu, and I got a strawberry milkshake at Café Imperial. I also tried fried cheese (glorified mozzarella stick in sandwich form) from Wenceslas Square earlier in the day. Gennie continues puking.
Saturday - Sunshine! and mild temperatures! I had a very good run around town. Later on a group of 8 of us went to U Fleku, Prague’s oldest brewery. Their beer was very tasty, and the atmosphere was very cool and old beer hall-esque, but it was a very touristy place and their prices reflected it. Also, one of the waiters got very agitated when we wouldn’t take the shots he was offering us (we found out beforehand that they weren’t free and are a bit of a trap) but he went away eventually mumbling about “tradition.” We met up with the rest of the group at a sports bar after that
for the beginnings of March Madness. The place had cheap beer and paintings of famous American rock and rollers on the wall (thumbs up!). I had a fit of delight when I saw Bruce up there too :) (also, the puking disease appears to have died with Gennie.)Sunday - I organized my registration stuff for the fall and made spaetsel for dinner.
Monday - packed for unplanned trip home and finished up sketchy leprechaun preparations
Tuesday-Sunday - early flight home and a week of family time.
Monday - back in Prague after a 6 hour layover in Heathrow due to an idiot security guy, who wouldn’t let me jump in line to make it to my flight. Luckily, the British Airways costumer service lady was very nice and gave me a food voucher along with my new flight which made the wait less painful. Made it back in time to sprint (in heels on cobblestones!) to the opera house with Jeremy, who had kindly waited for me with a ticket. We arrived 2 minutes too late for the 7pm door closing, but ran into the rest of the group at the café across the street with news that the show actually began at 8 and everyone had been misinformed. Hooray! So I was able to see the whole show which was nice but unfortunately my 16 hours of sleepless travel caught up with me in the plush chairs of the warm theatre, and I caught myself dozing off several times during each act. I’m still glad I was able to go though, the theatre itself was incredibly old and beautiful on the inside.
Tuesday - sleeeeep, rest, dinner, made fun-fetti cake (which Terry coined “America Cake”), shared it with ecstatic studio members, 80’s workout in room with Blakeley, shower, more sleep.
Today - doing some serious work in studio (only 4 ½ weeks left!) and Nina is officially obsessed with powerpoint effects. We spend more time watching pictures spin and glitter on the screen than we do learning why they are important.
In other news, our whole group is headed to Berlin on Friday morning for a long weekend. Cant wait!
Lauren
Friday, March 13, 2009
Spring Break Europe - Part 2
Continuing on…
Wednesday
We woke up early to pack up and catch our flight to Alicante, Spain. We ate our last free breakfast at the hotel, and took a train to the airport. We waited for a long time amongst the hoards of old people waiting to board our flight, (apparently Alicante is the Florida of Manchester) and then we were on our way! On the flight we had some sort of rowdy birthday party happening behind us, but otherwise things went smoothly. Jeremy and I were both taken aback by how many people ordered food from the little concession cart thing. It cost about 8 lbs for a dinky little sandwich and people had full out picnics of food in front of them. The lady next to me alone ordered four beers for her and her “mate.” Jeremy and I sufficed with our crumbly package of Czech caramelized biscuits (which by the way are my replacement cookies for the semester.)
We landed in Alicante around 2pm, I got bouncingly excited about the palm trees at the airport, then we took the c-6 bus from the airport to Plaza del Mar. Que bella Alicante! We checked into our hostel - Penzion la Milagrosa, and began wandering the sunny streets. W
e ate a late lunch/dinner at an outside place called Ceylon, where we each had a glass of Estrella Damm, (big Spanish beer) and shared the paella valenciana (saucy rice dish with chicken) veryyy tasty. We stopped for some gelato after that and then headed back to the hotel to change into some fresh evening wear. We prowled the streets for something to do for a while, and it slowly became more obvious that Alicante is more of a seasonal destination and has less to offer in the winter months. .. A little disappointed but none the less thirsty, we eventually found a fairly busy place called Havana offering sangria and cerveza for 1 euro each and shots for 2 euro. Jeremy took full advantage of the beer and shots deals, but only had the stamina for one glass of sangria (it was about this point that I was beginning to develop the angriest sore throat of my life.) After drinks we walked along the beach in the gale force winds for a little while before heading back to the hostel.
Thursday
We decided to sleep in for a little bit on Thursday , still recovering from all the travel earlier in the week, so around 11:30 or so we made are way up to see the Castillo de Santa Barbara, which is a stone fortress way up on a huge hill about a block form our hostel, (visible from most anywhere in Alicante.) We took the lift up, mostly because we could figure out how to walk up, and a big long tunnel lead us to it. It was also free because the ticket machine wasn’t working, which was a sweet bonus. We stepped out of the elevator at the top, took about 10 steps into the brilliant sun, and found ourselves quickly being forced back into the elevator. I’m sure you’re think hmm who or what could have pushed them back into the elevator? Was it a pushy security guard? Or aggressive Spanish youths? Perhaps a rogue Spanish mountain lion? But alas we were not that lucky. It was violent assaulting winds that threw us back, and continued to do so for the next hour and half. (My bag became airborne on more than one occasion and I seriously considered shaving my head afterwards over dealing with the massive beehive of knots… yes I said beehive, be afraid. But I would have to say that the paralyzing winds were worth it for the gorgeous view we saw of the city and the shiny sea below…and there was sun, and that’s all I really asked for. We also snapped a lot of very nice pictures.
After a treacherous journey down the mountain, we wandered through the city a bit, walked though a market with a ridiculous amount of fresh meat, ate some pizza and ice tea at a restaurant called Wong’s , and strolled through the Explanada de Palmas, browsing through the little trinkets and gifts in the vender stands. Our stroll ended at the entrance to the beach so we decided to p
lay there for a while. (spoiler alert: the pleasantness ends soon) I sat down and attempted to catch some rays while also shielding myself from the wind, which resulted in a babushka fashioned scarf around my head. Eventually I gave up and Jeremy and I decided to go stick our toes in the Mediterranean. We took off our shoes and sock and placed them next to my bag about 15 ft away from the water. We hoped around in the cold water for a minute or two, snapped some evidentiary photos and retreated back to the warm sand…only to find our shoes minus my bag. So long story short, I had idiotically forgotten where I was, made the unbelievable (I still can’t imagine how my overcautious brain let that one slide) mistake of neglecting my belongings , made the second unbelievable mistake of including my passport in those belongings, and after some intense panic, frantic running and searching, crying in the police station, talking to visa for half an hour and more frantic searching . Jeremy (to whom I owe serious metal therapy fees) and I decided to pack up all of our things and catch the 1:40 am bus to Barcelona to get to the U.S. Embassy before the weekend. (exasperated sigh) It was hard to abandon the hope that my bag would be recovered, but it wasn’t really something we could risk since we planned on leaving the country on Saturday. We ate some dinner at 11pm at a restaurant called Pizza de Pietro. (awesome tomato soup) and began our 8 hour bus ride to Barcelona. We slept most of the way so it wasn’t a bad ride, but by this time the sore throat that had started brewing on Wednesday was in a full blaze of glory, so I was a little uncomfortable. I woke up around 7 am to the warmth of a bright orange sun rising over the Mediterranean…the first beautiful sign of light a the end of the tunnel, and distracting for a little while.
Friday
We arrived in Barcelona around 9:40 and wasted no time figuring out where we had to go and how to get there. A nice lady helped us buy tickets in the metro station (to avoi
d a recurrence of the ape-like poking in Manchester) and we were on our way to Reina Eislenda (street name) another nice lady here pointed us in the direction of the embassy and - cue choruses of hallelujah - we were there. I filled out all the paperwork, took a photo in the little photo machine and like some kind of crazy miracle magic, I had a new passport within the hour. (cue more choruses) so Jeremy and I found ourselves standing outside of the U.S. embassy on the sunny streets of Barcelona, at 11:30am, starving, exhausted, relieved and not exactly sure what to do next…We discussed our travel options for quite a while, debated whether it would be worth taking another train back to Alicante immediately to catch our original flights to Manchester and then home to Prague. And after a long discussion, throughout which we were both a little grouchy and mostly just tired of thinking, we decided to relax in Barcelona for the rest of the day (call it mental, and in the case of my throat, physical health) and catch a direct flight home to Prague in the morning. It was by far the pricier decision, but also by far the best one I’ve ever made. Barcelona was wonderful, even just one afternoon’s worth made me feel like the whole passport thing was just fate kicking me (pretty painfully) in the direction I was meant to go. (I was fantasizing about visiting Barcelona for spring break before I even left for Prague, but the travel options just weren't working out)
Anyways Jeremy and I had a lovely afternoon there. We found a random inexpensive hostel called Hostel Flores along the main drag (Rambla Street) of very busy Catalunya, so we dumped our stuff there scrambled into the nearest restaurant for the menu del dia (6.50 Euro), were shocked when the bill came to find that our sangria and beer cost more that our entire meal, then proceeded to explore the sunny streets of Barcelona! We saw the Arc de Triomph, strolled down the Pg. Luis Com
panys (walkway) admiring the palms lining either side, watched a cute group of old Spanish men playing bocce ball, and continued wondering past the museum of natural science, on to Paseo de Colon. We moseyed along the pier here had a pretty view of the ocean/bay? , some cool ring sculptures in the distance, the world trade center (Spanish version??), the Moll de Espana and of course the statue of Cristobal Colon sitting high in the sky. We also we enticed by a tasty smelling little vendor cart and bought a waffle with chocolate goo on it. We had a pre
tty view from the pier of the sun setting on the water. Ahhhh…. Our last stop was a metro ride over to Barcoloneta to see the Sagrada Familia, this crazy old stone cathedral that I remember learning about in 8th grade Spanish class. Unfortunately it was being renovated while we were there, which took away some of the glory, but it was still magnificent to see. So much intricacy, and splendor at first sight you can’t do anything but stand there for 5 minutes muttering whoaa…….eventually we regained our senses enough to take some photos and then drag our tired bodies back to the hostel for refreshing. I bough some halls for my cactus throat and a postcard+keychain on the way there. We had a quick pizza/pasta dinner down the street and drinks at the cerveceria with some papas fritas. Then zombied back to the hostel to pass out. Long but successful and enjoyable day.
Saturday
We woke up early to catch a shuttle to the airport, and on our way I saw a sign that I had also seen right after my Alicante incident. It was an advertisement for coca cola with two smiling people on it and it said “Estas aqui para ser feliz” which translates to “You are here to be happy” I remembered how seeing that sign had comforted me after walking back from the police station feeling hopeless. I guess I just liked the simplistic, positive view on life it offered, and it reminded me not to let bad things get you down too much or for too long; you’ll get through it the best you can and things will be sunny again. And they were :)
At the airport we bought some delicious fresh orange juice, and ran into the group from our program who went intentionally to Barcelona for spring break. We ended up on the same flight as them and it turns out they had experienced some theft as well. Our flight took off without any hitches and we were back in Prague around 12:45. Jeremy and I bought some supplies for sandwiches at Billa, had a small feast then relished in doing nothing for the rest of the day. It was good to be home!
Lauren
Wednesday
We woke up early to pack up and catch our flight to Alicante, Spain. We ate our last free breakfast at the hotel, and took a train to the airport. We waited for a long time amongst the hoards of old people waiting to board our flight, (apparently Alicante is the Florida of Manchester) and then we were on our way! On the flight we had some sort of rowdy birthday party happening behind us, but otherwise things went smoothly. Jeremy and I were both taken aback by how many people ordered food from the little concession cart thing. It cost about 8 lbs for a dinky little sandwich and people had full out picnics of food in front of them. The lady next to me alone ordered four beers for her and her “mate.” Jeremy and I sufficed with our crumbly package of Czech caramelized biscuits (which by the way are my replacement cookies for the semester.)
We landed in Alicante around 2pm, I got bouncingly excited about the palm trees at the airport, then we took the c-6 bus from the airport to Plaza del Mar. Que bella Alicante! We checked into our hostel - Penzion la Milagrosa, and began wandering the sunny streets. W
e ate a late lunch/dinner at an outside place called Ceylon, where we each had a glass of Estrella Damm, (big Spanish beer) and shared the paella valenciana (saucy rice dish with chicken) veryyy tasty. We stopped for some gelato after that and then headed back to the hotel to change into some fresh evening wear. We prowled the streets for something to do for a while, and it slowly became more obvious that Alicante is more of a seasonal destination and has less to offer in the winter months. .. A little disappointed but none the less thirsty, we eventually found a fairly busy place called Havana offering sangria and cerveza for 1 euro each and shots for 2 euro. Jeremy took full advantage of the beer and shots deals, but only had the stamina for one glass of sangria (it was about this point that I was beginning to develop the angriest sore throat of my life.) After drinks we walked along the beach in the gale force winds for a little while before heading back to the hostel.Thursday
We decided to sleep in for a little bit on Thursday , still recovering from all the travel earlier in the week, so around 11:30 or so we made are way up to see the Castillo de Santa Barbara, which is a stone fortress way up on a huge hill about a block form our hostel, (visible from most anywhere in Alicante.) We took the lift up, mostly because we could figure out how to walk up, and a big long tunnel lead us to it. It was also free because the ticket machine wasn’t working, which was a sweet bonus. We stepped out of the elevator at the top, took about 10 steps into the brilliant sun, and found ourselves quickly being forced back into the elevator. I’m sure you’re think hmm who or what could have pushed them back into the elevator? Was it a pushy security guard? Or aggressive Spanish youths? Perhaps a rogue Spanish mountain lion? But alas we were not that lucky. It was violent assaulting winds that threw us back, and continued to do so for the next hour and half. (My bag became airborne on more than one occasion and I seriously considered shaving my head afterwards over dealing with the massive beehive of knots… yes I said beehive, be afraid. But I would have to say that the paralyzing winds were worth it for the gorgeous view we saw of the city and the shiny sea below…and there was sun, and that’s all I really asked for. We also snapped a lot of very nice pictures.
After a treacherous journey down the mountain, we wandered through the city a bit, walked though a market with a ridiculous amount of fresh meat, ate some pizza and ice tea at a restaurant called Wong’s , and strolled through the Explanada de Palmas, browsing through the little trinkets and gifts in the vender stands. Our stroll ended at the entrance to the beach so we decided to p
lay there for a while. (spoiler alert: the pleasantness ends soon) I sat down and attempted to catch some rays while also shielding myself from the wind, which resulted in a babushka fashioned scarf around my head. Eventually I gave up and Jeremy and I decided to go stick our toes in the Mediterranean. We took off our shoes and sock and placed them next to my bag about 15 ft away from the water. We hoped around in the cold water for a minute or two, snapped some evidentiary photos and retreated back to the warm sand…only to find our shoes minus my bag. So long story short, I had idiotically forgotten where I was, made the unbelievable (I still can’t imagine how my overcautious brain let that one slide) mistake of neglecting my belongings , made the second unbelievable mistake of including my passport in those belongings, and after some intense panic, frantic running and searching, crying in the police station, talking to visa for half an hour and more frantic searching . Jeremy (to whom I owe serious metal therapy fees) and I decided to pack up all of our things and catch the 1:40 am bus to Barcelona to get to the U.S. Embassy before the weekend. (exasperated sigh) It was hard to abandon the hope that my bag would be recovered, but it wasn’t really something we could risk since we planned on leaving the country on Saturday. We ate some dinner at 11pm at a restaurant called Pizza de Pietro. (awesome tomato soup) and began our 8 hour bus ride to Barcelona. We slept most of the way so it wasn’t a bad ride, but by this time the sore throat that had started brewing on Wednesday was in a full blaze of glory, so I was a little uncomfortable. I woke up around 7 am to the warmth of a bright orange sun rising over the Mediterranean…the first beautiful sign of light a the end of the tunnel, and distracting for a little while.Friday
We arrived in Barcelona around 9:40 and wasted no time figuring out where we had to go and how to get there. A nice lady helped us buy tickets in the metro station (to avoi
d a recurrence of the ape-like poking in Manchester) and we were on our way to Reina Eislenda (street name) another nice lady here pointed us in the direction of the embassy and - cue choruses of hallelujah - we were there. I filled out all the paperwork, took a photo in the little photo machine and like some kind of crazy miracle magic, I had a new passport within the hour. (cue more choruses) so Jeremy and I found ourselves standing outside of the U.S. embassy on the sunny streets of Barcelona, at 11:30am, starving, exhausted, relieved and not exactly sure what to do next…We discussed our travel options for quite a while, debated whether it would be worth taking another train back to Alicante immediately to catch our original flights to Manchester and then home to Prague. And after a long discussion, throughout which we were both a little grouchy and mostly just tired of thinking, we decided to relax in Barcelona for the rest of the day (call it mental, and in the case of my throat, physical health) and catch a direct flight home to Prague in the morning. It was by far the pricier decision, but also by far the best one I’ve ever made. Barcelona was wonderful, even just one afternoon’s worth made me feel like the whole passport thing was just fate kicking me (pretty painfully) in the direction I was meant to go. (I was fantasizing about visiting Barcelona for spring break before I even left for Prague, but the travel options just weren't working out)Anyways Jeremy and I had a lovely afternoon there. We found a random inexpensive hostel called Hostel Flores along the main drag (Rambla Street) of very busy Catalunya, so we dumped our stuff there scrambled into the nearest restaurant for the menu del dia (6.50 Euro), were shocked when the bill came to find that our sangria and beer cost more that our entire meal, then proceeded to explore the sunny streets of Barcelona! We saw the Arc de Triomph, strolled down the Pg. Luis Com
panys (walkway) admiring the palms lining either side, watched a cute group of old Spanish men playing bocce ball, and continued wondering past the museum of natural science, on to Paseo de Colon. We moseyed along the pier here had a pretty view of the ocean/bay? , some cool ring sculptures in the distance, the world trade center (Spanish version??), the Moll de Espana and of course the statue of Cristobal Colon sitting high in the sky. We also we enticed by a tasty smelling little vendor cart and bought a waffle with chocolate goo on it. We had a pre
tty view from the pier of the sun setting on the water. Ahhhh…. Our last stop was a metro ride over to Barcoloneta to see the Sagrada Familia, this crazy old stone cathedral that I remember learning about in 8th grade Spanish class. Unfortunately it was being renovated while we were there, which took away some of the glory, but it was still magnificent to see. So much intricacy, and splendor at first sight you can’t do anything but stand there for 5 minutes muttering whoaa…….eventually we regained our senses enough to take some photos and then drag our tired bodies back to the hostel for refreshing. I bough some halls for my cactus throat and a postcard+keychain on the way there. We had a quick pizza/pasta dinner down the street and drinks at the cerveceria with some papas fritas. Then zombied back to the hostel to pass out. Long but successful and enjoyable day.Saturday
We woke up early to catch a shuttle to the airport, and on our way I saw a sign that I had also seen right after my Alicante incident. It was an advertisement for coca cola with two smiling people on it and it said “Estas aqui para ser feliz” which translates to “You are here to be happy” I remembered how seeing that sign had comforted me after walking back from the police station feeling hopeless. I guess I just liked the simplistic, positive view on life it offered, and it reminded me not to let bad things get you down too much or for too long; you’ll get through it the best you can and things will be sunny again. And they were :)
At the airport we bought some delicious fresh orange juice, and ran into the group from our program who went intentionally to Barcelona for spring break. We ended up on the same flight as them and it turns out they had experienced some theft as well. Our flight took off without any hitches and we were back in Prague around 12:45. Jeremy and I bought some supplies for sandwiches at Billa, had a small feast then relished in doing nothing for the rest of the day. It was good to be home!
Lauren
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