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