Floating Through Prague

So Sunday ended up being my vege day. I did some knitting (Gennie taught me how to knit in the round so I’m making a leg warmer) watched some Friends on my laptop and went to studio for dinner. Later I did ab-solutions with a few girls at the hostel and eventually went to bed. Monday I had a nice slushy run in the morning and studio in the afternoon. I made sausage risotto for dinner which was pretty well received, I think, and I also made a cheesecake for Tuesday. Later on a group of us went to the Shitting Cat for a few drinks - always good fun.

Today Beekeeping was canceled so I had a free day. Gennie Jeremy and I decided to spend the day walking around Mala Strana (Little Quarter.) Everything there was really cute and colorful and the day turned out to be pretty nice considering we woke up to windy, wet snow and more slush. We also saw the Fred and Ginger Building (nick-named for Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers) or “Dancing House” while we were out, which is way cool to look at but is really just a boring office building inside.
In other news today is Mardi Gras, or “Carnival” here, so many of us are planning to head out on the town tonight for some cultural enlightenment. I’m working on a headdress right now. It has pink flowers :) Also, the Cheesecake turned out pretty good; people made yummy noises.

Some Notes about Prague:
1. Everyone has a dog, they take them with them everywhere, and the majority of them are smaller than a football.
2. The air here is comprised of about 90% cigarette smoke and 10% cloudiness. You cannot escape it, not even in sleep.
3. The metro system kicks ass, but only till 12 am. The tram system takes over from here and requires at least one sober mind to navigate.
4. Lots of snow and slush but no where to play in it :(
5. The air is coldest in the middle of the day
6. “No” (short for Ano) means yes -verrrry confusing and misleading
7. Lots and lots of pretty (but expensive) glass stuff in all the stores.
7. Still no cookies to be found :(

Lauren

The Week of Endless Snow

Another week in Prague, another batch of strange stories.

Tuesday - Another riveting bee lesson. Our professor showed us a video of himself shirtless as a young man engulfed from head to shoulders in a swarm of bees. “it is very warm inside there” he said with an elated grin. We also tried honey/butter sandwiches which are apparently very popular among Czech children.

Wednesday - we were assaulted (verbally and physically) by Nina’s “seamstress” in our efforts to record our body measurements. After which we received no instruction on what to do with the measurements or ourselves so most of us just cruised the internet. History was more of the same power-point hullabaloo.

Thursday - Field trip with Nina to the fabric store in East Jabib. I bought supplies to make pajama shorts for the sweltering hostel and Capri pants for Spain. Finally something real to do in studio! We were then assigned our Midsummer’s night dream characters to make a costume for, but given no due date or specifics for the project. . . .Me: “Nina when will this be due?” Nina: “Okay yah, you think about it for this week and maybe yah next week too then you pin it together and yah we‘ll do it.”….. In fashion illustration we drew our hands in different positions then took a field trip to a body exhibit in old town square.
Later that night I successfully led a group of us to Lucerna- an 80’s music bar/club that I found online and looked awesome. Unfortunately when we arrived the man at the told us “finish finish” and wouldn’t let us in, so we hoped around to a few different places after that but generally we discovered that Thirsty Thursday is just not a big custom in Prague. Oh well.

Friday - slept a lot. Went to studio for dinner, came home.
Friday night - sigh, I once again headed up a successful journey across town with an unsuccessful end. This time to U Fleku - Pragues oldest Brewery/bar. It has been around since the 1450’s and apparently so have its hours.. It closes at 11 and we arrived around 11:05. But we managed to salvage the evening by doing a bit of bar-hopping….a very small bit, we didn’t make it past the 2nd bar. But for good reasons. 1. It was cheap 2. They had a jukebox thing with American music on it (CCR!!) 3. They didn’t kick us out for dancing in the only 2 square feet of floor space there. 4. We met some very loud and friendly Czech friends named Jakub and Jakub’s friend with long hair. and 5. Our new friends bought us shots. (okay that one was actually a bad reason.) Also Terry taught me the Czech motto that one should be “loyal to one man, one woman, and one beer,” which is apparently why bar hopping is frowned upon. Fun night with an easy tram ride home.
Saturday- we woke up for the hostel breakfast at 9:30 and quickly went back to sleep. We re-awoke around 11:30 and went to Bohemia Bagel for lunch with the rest of the group. Gennie, Eleanor, Blakeley, Laura-nelle and I then went to the tower on top of the astrological clock in old town square to take pictures of the city. The view was soo Beautiful. We got some really great pictures and met some really cute British guys. After that we trekked out in the snow and slush and frigid winds to Vysehrad, which is a quaint and quiet little town a few metro stops over. It has a really pretty church/castle that we weren’t able to go inside because it wasn’t Sunday and this amazing graveyard. It was huge and snowy and nestled in lush green trees with little birds chirping-very mystical enchanted garden type feel. But anyway it has all these famous Czech peoples graves, and they all are very ornate and royal looking. A very cool place to see. We popped in a café there for some overpriced coffee then trekked home.

Saturday night - our trekking group went to my favorite place around the corner for dinner, where I once again had the French onion soup, and followed it this time with a dessert of fried strawberries and ice cream. yummmmmmmmm. My addiction to that place grows stronger with every visit. After a long day in the snow and a belly full of hot tasty things I was content to just stay in and vege in my room for a night, but the rest of the girls had made plans to go to Lucerna (the sweet 80’s place that rejected us on Thursday) so I postponed my vegging until later and went out. Possibly one of my best decisions yet on this trip. We had a glorious night of 80’s dancing in front of a large video screen playing the original music videos. There was also a large stage in front of the screen to dance on . . .and being like any other stage ever built this one naturally had a few stairs to allow people to well, access it. (duh) Well, after drinking only one beer (one!) and in a fit of elation at hearing the first chords of Madonna’s “Like a prayer” I grabbed Eleanor and made a bee line for the stage. She climbed the two (yes only two) stairs ahead of me, but apparently I could not be bothered with the second one, so my brain ignored it and continued zoombie-ing towards the bouncy beats of Madonna. My left shin had different ideas though, and alerted me to the stair’s presence…twice. My right foot was in on the reminder too. Bruised but not distracted I regained control of my limbs, and enjoyed fabulous 80’s videos and dancing till 3 in the morning. I awoke later that morning to achy bruises, wondering who had been kicking my shins and stepping on my feet all night. (only one beer I swear!)

Lauren

Skiing, sweets, and swollen toes

I am really starting to like this three day weekend, every weekend deal. Friday a group of about 13 of us went skiing at a mountain called Skiareal Herlikovice (Snow hill) about an hour and a half away. We got a bus ride there + lift ticket for about $30 then rentals for $15. Not a bad deal. It was a small mountain but the trails were nice and powdery and not deathly steep. They were also un-groomed which was nice but also tricky when little bumps would take you by surprise. I found a little excursion of a trail on the left side of the mountain which had about 2 feet of untouched powder sitting on top a quaint little barn on the side and a peaceful view of the distant towns. Ahhhh, so lovely. The mountain didn’t really have a lodge anywhere, but it had several little outdoor pit-stops along the mountain for food. Menu choices: kielbasa, goulash, fried cheese, french fries, beer, and mulled wine. I decided to be classy and go with wine and cheese (the classiness of this choice may be negated by the fact that they were mulled and fried, but then again I’m in a country where no one thinks twice about their liver or arteries- so I say its fair game) I took a long nap on the ride home then settled in at the hostel for some serous thawing and sleeping.

Saturday was a tourist day. Several girls and I started our morning early with a few museum visits. We hit the museum of communism, which was probably the first museum I’ve ever been to where I read every single one of the long info plaques- very interesting (and also a little confusing due to the translations) stuff. After that we went to the sex machines museum which was eye opening, interesting, funny, and disturbing all in one visit. Anna and I did a little touristy browsing after that then headed back to the hostel. Later that evening some girls and I got dressed up for v-day and went out to dinner. We went to a place around the corner which was empty but ironically out of just about everything we tried to order and also very slow. But we eventually drank ate and paid for a very tasty meal then skedaddled to meet the rest of the group in old town square. Here we waited for a while, took a picture with a stranger dressed as a gorilla and hovered together for warmth. When everyone else showed up we searched for a bar/club with reasonable prices and eventually settled on Chappeau Rouge. This was a crowded bar filled with a rowdy group of Americans (besides us) that had a dance floor downstairs. We spent most of our time down there and while I had a very fabulous time dancing, I hadn’t planned on doing so and thus had not wore the proper foot attire (in other words my trusty, holey ballet flats were home safe in my closet and I was bouncing around and attempting to “get low” in 2 inch high, pointy-toed heels) half a bottle of champagne at dinner followed by two beers at the bar managed to keep me pretty oblivious to the pain at the time (and continue bouncing like an idiot) but the cold cobblestoned walk home was an excruciating one. I vaguely recall walking shoe-less in my stockings for the second half of it and referring to the dirty cobblestones as “wonderful cold pillows” ….enough said.

Sunday I arose late to sunless skies and swollen toes….but I had to be happy that they were indeed still attached. I did some laundry in the shower sink which was actually very relaxing and home-ish then went about strewing it from my window to dry. Gennie loaned me her laundry line and clothespins while I loaned her my computer with Zoombinis game, and I rigged a very, um. . . elegant display for the neighbors. (see photo) We went to the studio after that to recreate our pasta dinner from the night before. Then I came back to the hostel and watched other people do homework that I’ve yet to experience.

Today I woke up to a snow covered city and still swollen toes. I went to studio in the afternoon, where Nina told us “ okay, now you have snow, so now you have everything.” ….??? but anyways, we finally began our first project: designing a costume for A Midsummer’s Night Dream. By began, of course I mean that Nina and Lad brought it up then had us sit through two very strange foreign movie interpretations of the play, throughout which Lad attempted to narrate what was happening as Nina interrupted and they bickered about which characters loved which characters and why, and then Lad told Nina “don’t get so emotionally involved.” haha, at least we have some entertainment. After the movies, we started making mini costumes for our little wooden figures. After class I skyped with mom and grandma, then Gennie and I went on fabric store hunt. We found the one she was looking for, which was cute and had cool stuff but also had gaggingly high prices so we decided to hold off for a while. In our travels though we also came across a cute and colorful hippy-esque consignment shop called Toalettey (interesting name choice yes). They had lots of bold flowery things that were more fun to gawk at than try on, but I found a cute gray sweatshirt/dress type thing that was mild but hip so I bought it, and plan on flaunting it shamelessly :)

Also we did a secret valentine thing at studio, and Anna got me as her valentine so she gave me a little fuzzy duck purse with chocolate eggs inside and some wine-o gummies. As a side note Anna is my best wine drinking pal and i obviously am very fond of ducks and chocolate so this gift was shear joy and perfection :)

Lauren

Cookie Monster

So I made the Stromboli on Sunday night and everything went off without a hitch.-besides the shockingly high price of cheddar. Hooray! So figuring I would ride the momentum of my shopping/baking success I quickly made plans to bake chocolate chip cookies this week.

Apparently I over estimated my momentum, along with the cookie passion of the Czech Republic. I guess I hadn’t noticed that cookies weren’t a common item in shops or bakeries - somehow my cookie radar missed this? Or perhaps it just broke instantly upon landing in this cookie barren desert…. Anyways it took me about an hour of searching futilely through the congested aisles of Tesco (Czech‘s most American grocery store) for vanilla extract, brown sugar, chocolate chips and baking soda for me to comes to terms with the fact that maybe home baked cookies just aren’t a big thing here. Disappointed, but not discouraged I improvised my recipe with vanilla sugar, loose brown sugar, crushed chocolate bars and baking powder. And with a sigh of relief I left Tesco. But as if that fiasco just wasn’t quite enough to really challenge me, I discovered on my return to the institute that our kitchen contained absolutely no measuring devices. Ugh.
This may have deterred a lesser cookie fanatic , but fortunately for me the world holds no stronger motivation for me than a batch of fresh baked cookies and a t-shirt decorated with ingredients. I scrounged up a small teaspoon and a coffee mug roughly the size of a 1 cup measurement and continued my war with fate. The dough came out a little bit more liquidy that usual but tasted up to par, so into the tiny oven it went. And sure enough after 8-10 minutes at 175 degrees Celsius I had 12 lovely little brown lumps of sweet melty chocolatey goodness. Ahhhh sweeet victory. My studio friends agreed.

In other news our group had a bowling trip on Monday. It was fun, but it was also bowling… so not exhilerating. I had bees and beekeeping for the first time on Tuesday. Our professor doesn’t speak English super well but he knows a lot so it was informative. For the second half of class we mostly just watched a discovery channel/pbs video on the entire sociology of honey bees. Frankly, one of the most fascinating and interesting videos I’ve ever seen while also one of the most repulsive. Those cameras get sickeningly close to the action. And I will think twice before I doodle a cute friendly bumble bee on my math homework again.

On Tuesday night we all went to a jazz club which was a cool hole in the ground type of place. The music was really awesome ….and so were the drinks. Anna and I shared a bottle of wine which was nice, until the grad students all decided to take shots of absinthe with Art. (Art by the way is the 50ish year old dean of the landscape architecture program. Who was with us, and consistently drinking with us- the absinthe was his suggestion- for 2 weeks but flying home to Raleigh the next morning at some ungodly hour. We haven’t heard anything bad so we assume he made it home okay) anyways I wasn’t suicidal enough to try absinthe, but witnessing the whole thing inspired everybody to take a shot of something. My poison was absolut pears -which like the rest of ‘em- sounds and smells wayyyy better than it tastes. Wednesday morning was a groggy one for all of us.

Wednesday was usual classes and a few of us made pizza for dinner. Later we had a mini movie night and watched monsters inc on my laptop in the hostel. I passed out about half way through. Ah sweet sleeep. Today is normal classes again, we made valentine dresses for our little dress forms in studio. There are plans for sushi tonight (should be interesting at least) and skiing tomorrow.

Lauren

Back in Town

So I’ve been back in Prague for almost a week now , and I have to say its nice to be free of Parisian prices. 4 days of 4 Euro beers is just too much for too long. We got back late Monday night, and Tuesday was a free day for me, so I just did some grocery shopping, attempted to skype mom without a microphone (unsuccessful) and went to dinner with Anna, Jeremy and Rima at Putna - a Mexican restaurant where I had an awesome and cheap mixed vegetable “salad” (oddly many of the salads here seem to lack lettuce).

Wednesday was the first day of classes. I had fashion/costume design studio 9-11:40 where our professors (Nina and Ladislav) left us to construct 3-D “anythings” out of paper for 2 ½ hours. I made a mobile with hanging flowers, which was evaluated as “vary naiiice” by Ladislav and “yah yah it looks like maybe a some vary nice jewelry” by Nina. Success? I’ll let you be the judge. We had Fashion history after that, which, in a nutshell, consisted of Nina flipping through very information-dense power point slides at an alarmingly fast rate, Ladislav talking about them (Yah Yah this was very important style yah) and us trying frantically to copy down as much info as we could before the slide changed /slash figuring out what we would be expected to remember from the lesson, then eventually giving up, watching the flashing, fading, and disorienting layering of images on the screen, and wondering just who the hell taught Nina how to use Power point.

Thursday consisted of another 3-d paper class in studio ( I made a paper dress and hat for my little wooden figure.) I had a little break then I sat in on the Czech language class and actually learned a great deal of helpful information . The teacher is very fun and upbeat, so the class was good and I think I will continue going for a while. After that was Fashion illustration (with Nina and Lad again!) where we drew draping fabric for almost 3 hours - Eleanor and I strayed from draping for a little while to draw some figures. Lad thought this was “vary naiice,” Nina gave us more drapery to draw. After this very long day several of us went to get Eurodogs for dinner ( 20 Koruna ($1) hot dog in a tube of bread, with not enough mustard, in my opinion - looks kinda like a corn dog) then we went to café café for some delicious cakes. Later on almost our entire group went out to Radost FX- a Dance club one metro stop away. Lots of fun, drinking and dancing. On the downside of the fun, my favorite black ballerina flats now have small holes forming in the backs, but on the plus side, this suggests that my dance moves/skills may have reached a new level.

Friday was a sleep till noon type of day, followed by a group trip to Bohemia Bagel for brunch (an American style bagel/breakfast place)I went to the motor café for internet, ran with Blakeley, then dined around the corner at Obycejny Suet with Rima and Blakeley - most definitely the best French onion soup I have ever had in my life and only 30 Koruna!!



Saturday I shopped with Gennie, Anna and Blakely in Wenceslas square. We hit New Yorker, (where I bought fabulous yellow boots! ) H&M, Zara, and Mango. Then anna and I went grocery shopping and to Café Louvre for their renown hot chocolate (might as well have been a melted chocolate bar! yum.) Then I successfully skyped mom and dad, got more French onion soup with Rima and went out to Club Cross with several girls. I decided this was both the coolest place I’ve ever seen (crazy clock like insides with killer light stuff) and simultaneously the sketchiest. Getting home was also an effort, but we are slowly figuring out the tram system - me being the slowest of course.

Today is Laundry day. I’m at a Laundromat several blocks away and Its very expensive here so I think in the future I will wash more of my stuff in the sinks at the Hostel. I’m hoping to make Stromboli later tonight at the institute, but as of now my search for pizza dough and normal deli ham continues.

Lauren

Cafe Hopping and a Special Baguette

2-2-09 (Monday)

We woke up to snow covered roofs this morning, and a silent rain washing it all away. We moved out of the hostel, and since our little group of four had seen all the sites we wanted to, we decided to make it a low key day and do some café hopping. We hit La Faumburg first we I had coffee and a delicious nuttella crepe. We lingered there for as long as we could (much longer than any US restaurant would dream of allowing) and then ventured back out into the rain. We popped into a grocery store next, for no specific reason, and there I bought a tasty looking baguette for only .75 Euro whom we named Jean Claude. Gennie provided him with a marker face and voila! Our group was up to five. We then proceeded to spend the rest of the afternoon creating photo ops for Jean Claude at every shop we stopped in. (I think his favorite was the bookstore where he read about crepes)

We stopped at Starbucks for a little while to lounge while we wrote postcards. Then we delivered them to the post office and headed back to the hostel to leave for the airport. We arrived early to the airport and our flight was delayed 1 ½ hours. So we played some card games for the first 30 minutes or so, and then everyone sat and stared painfully at each other until we were allowed to board. After the bus from the airport and metro we arrived back at our pension around 12:30 am. Ugh.
Oh and also we ate Jean Claude while we were waiting :(

Lauren

More Excursions and Shiny Shoes!

2-1-09 (Sunday)

So for the rest of the group today started out with hangovers and frequent toilet visits, but for our small group it began with another exciting continental breakfast and a tram and a shuttle to “Mess Around” which is a shoe and accessory exhibition for new designers and lines to attract buyers and get there product noticed/spread their market. It was mostly shoes, I would say, and some of the companies had the coolest footwear you have every seen. I highly encourage you to check out “polliwalks” for young children (Spencer Jr!) and El Natura Lista (recycled material shoes that are so stylish!) I also got very excited about a brand of shoe called “Rubber Duck” that had shiny, bright colored, moonish boots- so wonderful!

After the exhibitions our same group from yesterday had had lunch with Dana, then took the metro to Notre Dame. We stopped in at a place called Café Panis and ordered some mulled wine. The wine was good, the waiter was not - possibly the rudest person I’ve encountered so far. But The Cathedral was Beautiful! So beautiful sitting on the river, and the intricacies of the stone, and all the statues…I wish I’d had the time/body heat to stare and study it all day. We followed the crowds in and saw the massive inside with gorgeous stain glass, and pillars. There was a service going on too which was really cool to see and hear, especially the house-sized organ - that beautiful instrument looked like it would eat you alive if you even looked at it wrong. I took lots of pictures and put a message in the “Message de Paix” box (message of peace) I also signed the little sign in/prayer book.

From the cathedral we took the metro to Etoile to see the Arc de Triomphe. It was dark by this time so it was all lit up and there was an orchestra playing outside for some memorial thing. We attempted several times to cross the 7 undefined lanes of the traffic circle surrounding the arc , where we were unsuccessful in the fact that we weren’t able to cross, and successful in the fact that we didn’t kill ourselves trying. We were then informed by an elderly woman on a bus that there is a walking tunnel under the street that would take us there safely. Sac re bleu! So we crossed “safely,” then we proceeded to climb the 271 steps to the top of the arc. 8 burning thighs later and we were there! The view was magical. All the lights of the city twinkling around us, the Eiffel tower in the distance, the whipping winds assaulting us from every direction. . . ehhh so the wind wasn’t so magical, but the rest was honestly exhilarating.

We took the metro home after that, after stopping for cookies and a hot drink, then we hit up a cheap Asian take out place I found back near the hostel. Ahh delicious French cuisine ;) We went back to the hostel, then played card games, etc. till we were semi- unconscious. Another lovely day in Paris.

Lauren

Exibits and Excursions in Paris

2-1-09 (Saturday)
A lovely breakfast of bread and coffee this morning at the hostel, which is becoming very familiar. (Apparently the continental breakfast really does vary by continent.) Then our group left for the Musee Galeree, where we walked through an exhibit of historical fashion dresses “Sous L’Empire Des Crinolines” (1852-1870) The dresses were amazing. They were made for much smaller people a long time ago, but the constructions themselves were so beautiful and ornate. I made about 5 pages of sketches.
Next we visited the Sonia Rykiel exhibit at the Musee du Louvre. It was her fortieth anniversary of designing, and her collection was unbelievable. Not only the quantity of unique designs and clothing lines she has produced, but the way she has continued to reinvent her designs and produce new and crazy (very crazy) things. Extremely cool to see it all, especially when I didn’t know hardly anything about her before hand. The gift shop in this place was also very neat- hip and artsy. I bought a few postcards.
Our next quest was Lunch, and while this should have been a simple quest, it turned into a long misdirectional hunt for a restaurant recommended by Anael (asst. director not on trip with us) We took advantage of our lostness to take some very good pictures though, so it wasn’t all bad. And when pictures we no longer an adequate distraction from our hunger, Gennie stepped up and took the map from Nina and Dana and found the restaurant in about 5 minutes. She has since been designated our official navigational Dodo. (Her initials are GPS- coincidence, I think not) Soooo, we had lunch at La Ferme which has a cute little cow as its logo. I had some awesome carrot soup and a very mini baguette (Paris is sooo expensive, I’ve found that soup is the best and most filling deal)
After lunch we broke up into smaller groups. Gennie, Jeremy, Anna, and I decided to do a self-guided walking tour of Paris instead of going to the department store with the rest - best decision ever.
We started at the Pyramid du le Lourve, which looked wonderful with the late afternoon sun glistening through it. And we tried to use our da Vinci code skills to locate the Roseline, but we were unsuccessful So we settled for funny pictures with the statues instead.
We continued on through the mini Arc du Triumph and though Le Jardin des Tuieries, (Garden of Tulips) up to the oblesque (tall, skinny, Washington monument type thing- Gennie said its called Nelson’s Needle or something like that and it has a twin in London) then we continued walking down Avenue des Champs Elysees toward the Arc du Triumph, but we turned left before it to see the Petit Palais and the Grand Palais (Palais de la Decouverte) and across the seine river to the huge Hotel Des Invalides/ Musee de L’armee. We didn’t go inside these but the buildings themselves were beautiful. We also saw a statue of Winston Churchill.
Next we were off to Le Tour Eiffel!!! (Eiffel Tower) It was a long chilly walk to get there but it was a great finale to the day. We took lots of pictures and tried to create our own people tower (to pay homage of course) and ended up semi-successful with several two-man towers. We wanted to go up inside of it but the lines were about 3 miles long and Paris was also quickly morphing into the arctic tundra (aka really really cold with a crippling breeze- and minus the polar bears of course) so we decided to skip it, but as we were walking to the metro, we turned around to see the whole thing glittering! Sorta like a giant firework- without the threat of explosion. After a few minutes it become a steady light so we headed home.
We went to a pizza place near the hostel for dinner against the warning of Dana, which was a mistake. The pizza was absolutely fantastic, especially after all that walking, but the waiter was very unpleasant and bitter because we wanted to split pizzas instead of order one each. After that we went to the grocery store for wine and bought several bottles for 2.70 Euro each!!! After the initial excitement we quickly learned that Way cheap = way trouble. We drank and played cards in the hotel room for a while then got coaxed into going out to a club with the others. Unfortunately said others decided to order drinks (2 for 5 euro again) at the Monte Charge first “really quick” (no such thing at a bar) and we never made it to the alleged club, but evidently they did at some point, and they took the Monte Charge bartender and waiter with them. (Nikola and Sam.)
Oy ve.

Lauren

Arrival in Paris

1-30-09 (Friday)
So our flight left Prague around 7 am this morning and we arrived in Paris around 9am. From the airport our group of 10 students and 2 directors took a crowded 30 minute ride on the “omnibus” followed by some confusion and 3 different metro trains, followed by some more confusion and our arrival at the hostel. (all the while towing our bulky over packed carry-on sized luggage. Needless to say there was a lot of sweating and general disgruntlement , but I’ve learned my packing lesson) After dumping our luggage, we headed out to Pret a’ Porter, which translates to “Ready to wear.” this was a big fashion/accessories exhibition (5 metro trains away) with tons of designers looking for buyers for their new lines for next winter. Everything was amazing to look at, but the fact that we couldn’t actually buy anything took some of the fun out of it. We also saw two fashion shows which had some really cool stuff and some really strange stuff, but altogether they were fun. We just walked around the exhibition afterward. They started giving out free champagne and little mango shots (very tasty) and we quickly realized that it was time to eat.
We left around 7pm, took the metro back to the hostel, then went to a restaurant across the street called “Monte Charge.” Mixed drinks were 2 for 5 Euro so we each tried two of those. After dinner I went for a short walk around town with Rima. We bought some wine at a small convenience store, and we went into a little bakery that gave us free crepes because she understood what they were saying in Arabic. Woo! We then headed back to the hostel where we drank wine and ate crepes with my roomies.

Lauren

Introductions

1-29-09
Yesterday we met our studio space - a very small cute apartment-esque building just outside of old town square. It has kitchens, a sunny work space, and is very cozy in general. We went to a pizzeria for lunch where I had some excellent minestrone soup. For dinner the whole group of us (about 20-25 people as a whole) went to dinner in a monastery with Dana and Art (program directors) we took two tram lines to get there, half of us got off a stop late (due to the psycho tram doors) and had to walk back, but the restaurant was very cool and lodge-like and the beer- Klaster - was excellent! (both light and dark varieties) I had a goat cheese salad with grapes and almonds and it came with this little grape-sized orange colored fruits that Dana thought were called “Kum Kwats” (definitely not sure on that spelling) they tasted like oranges and apricots with the texture of a plum. Very tasty. After dinner Art took us to a local bar called “Scheisse Katze” which evidently translates to “shitting Cat” or something along those lines. Anyways it was small and had a funky artsy atmosphere , so I really liked it. I tried a baileys latte -very good. And a few of us stayed late after the big group left and drank different varieties of cheap wine. It ended up being a very entertaining night that came to a close with me breaking a flower pot in the hotel breakfast lounge. Who thought it was a good idea to hand it to me- I’m not sure. But fortunately the damage was not severe and I was able repair it puzzle piece style. (no one appears to suspect anything, but I did get a little nervous when I had to return to the scene of the crime to search for my lost hat. The pot was intact and said hat was later found under bed.)
Today we met our Professors Nina and Lada (lahd-ya) at least I think that was his name. they were both very nice and up beat and have a lot of experience in the fashion industry, so I’m getting really excited to hear what they have to share with us. They talked a little about the projects for this semester, and I think I will really enjoy them. Next we visited the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague, with our new professors and saw some of the work of the students there. It was amazing. The garments and everything down to the sketches were amazing and so exciting and new. The other departments around the school had awesome work out too-a very creative and inspiring place. Lunch at a café after that then back to the studios for some cultural history of Prague. I was a little sleepy at this point but the information was actually very interesting and I jotted down fun facts* in stead of dozing. (*stay tuned) Anna and I also started planning our many weekend excursions across Europe. After all that our group did a long, cold walking tour with Dana - I’ve got a lot of places to go before I leave!- and headed back to the hotel to prepare for our 5:00am departure for Paris tomorrow. It’s couture fashion week! Tomorrow we get to see an fashion exhibition that only shows one weekend a year! We also get to pay almost three times as much for meals. . . maybe it only being a four day trip isn’t such a bad thing.

Lauren