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 things 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 Wall. (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 Charlie, 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 ball 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 beer, 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

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

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. We 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 play 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 avoid 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 Companys (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 pretty 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

Spring Break Europe - Part 1

so I guess a crazy week has to begin somewhere

Sunday
We flew out of Prague around 10:40 Sunday night on a little discount airline called BMI Baby. It was small and cute and has a little baby mascot named Tiny. We arrived in Manchester around Midnight local time and caught the 12:30 shuttle to Picadilly station just in time. (next shuttle at 3:20) we arrived about 20 minutes later at our hotel, just across the street from the station, Hotel International. It was old and creaky but colorful and charming. Our room was not much bigger than the sunken in beds and the view out our window was a brick wall and some wooden planks. Amazingly enough I was ecstatic about the place- so much crust and character, proof that it was going to be an adventure from the start.

Monday- Manchester
We got an early start to our day and went downstairs to eat our free breakfast. We made our way over to the little food spread in the dining room and as I was choosing a cereal to go along with my croissant (quite surprised and pleased at the selection) Jeremy and I were approached by the cook/dining man and asked if we wanted a “court” breakfast. Well, we gaped at each other and gaped at him, frightened by not knowing what he was saying or what it was he was offering us, so we politely declined and sat down to eat our cereal, croissants and orange juice. Halfway through breakfast we saw several other people come in and accept the mysterious “court” breakfast. Still hypothesizing on what strange British delicacy this might be, we watched as the cook man brought out plates of hot eggs beans and sausage to the newcomers, and we quickly realized that we had actually declined the “cooked” breakfast. Sneaky Brits. The same cook man asked us for our room number when we sat down as well, and when we told him 101 he said “ah room with a view”

After breakfast we went to the train station to print out our tickets for London the next day. We did this successfully then decided, why not get a day metro pass for Manchester while we’re here? Well the reason why not is that we couldn’t figure out how. We found the ticket machine just fine, but ended up staring at it, poking it like apes for 20 minutes, until we just decided maybe some exercise would do us good. The rest of the day was spent exploring Manchester on foot. This ended up being the perfect decision because the city centre of Manchester, which is where we were ,was actually the perfect size for walking everywhere we wanted to go. We wandered around map-less the whole morning and saw the Manchester cathedral, the Manchester wheel (too expensive to ride), town hall, print works, the theatre, and China Town and it’s fancy arch. We stopped in for a much needed lunch break at Hog’s Head (in a fit of nerdy Harry Potter excitement) where we ravenously gulped down a giant plate of fish and chips and a Guinness each. One of the most satisfying and filling meals I have ever eaten.

We slowly dragged our heavy stomachs out of there and hit up the John Rylands Library. This library is part of Manchester University but has a crazy amount of historical literature. We saw the oldest dated writing fragment of the new testament, which was a fragment of St. John’s Gospel (2nd century AD) along with personal papers of John Wesley, ancient collections of Shakespeare’s plays and lots on the history of printing and fonts. There was even a special corner on the St. Christopher woodcarving I learned about in art history last year, and an example of the “Chancery” font. After the library, Jeremy and I walked along canal street for a little while, played pooh sticks on one of the bridges, yelled at the aggressive ducks who drowned our pooh sticks, went to a place called KRO for some cake, and realized that we were standing in the Picadilly Gardens that we had been searching for all day (I had been expecting more flowers.)

After all the walking we went back the hotel for a nap, then out to the Old Wellington Inn for Dinner. This restaurant had a very medieval England feel to it, small ,creaky, wooden, sticky tables, hearty laughs, warm atmosphere (we liked it a lot). Jeremy had the Timothy Taylor Cask Ale, which I continue to hear about to this day, with bangers and mash, and I had the house wine which was Cancha y Torro Merlot- Delicious!- and a salad with chicken. We walked home in the rain, which added some more glory to my already beaten ballet flats. (they may need to write a book after this)

Tuesday-London
Tuesday morning we declined the cooked breakfast again and the cook man once again reminded us we had the “room with a view.” We took the 9:30 train to London, but before boarding enjoyed a long-winded conversation with an old English chap named Paul Dymond about printing on synthetics, sublimation, and his old business in Greensboro. He even drew Jeremy a picture of some fabric printing machine (that looked more like a bug to me) on the back of his business card. He told us he was on his way to a wind energy convention type thing in London, then we said cheers and parted.

Our train was a little late to arrive due to what the conductor called “ a bit of a fatality on the tracks” (eek!) But we were on our way shortly, and we spent the next two hours enjoying the views from the train window of the English countryside and the many sheep grazing in it. We arrived in London Euston a little before noon and made our way via metro towards King’s Cross Station. Here we found out that Harry Potter is a liar. The entrance to platform 9 ¾ (cute stone wall with 9 on one side and 10 on the other) does not exist in King‘s Cross Station, nor is platform 9a (the closest thing we could find to it) as pretty and stone wall-ish as they make it look in the movie. Sigh, you’ve let me down little wizard. Moving on from that earth shattering disappointment, we took the metro to Victoria station, and saw Buckingham Palace, complete with marching troop of guards. We then walk alongside of St John’s Park which smelled deliciously of fresh flowers, on to Westminster Abbey, St Margaret’s Cathedral, and big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. We ducked into the metro station after this to evade the rain and popped up near a row of little restaurants, which was convenient because as Jeremy noted I was getting to the very grumpy stages of hungry. At Pompadour Patisserie we each had a Panini and shared a pot of tea. For dessert we shared an English style cream tea (recommended to me by Sandy from work) which consisted of a pot of tea, a scone, and butter, jam, and cream butter to spread on it. It was delicious, and melted away all the grumpiness.

We hiked back out into the rain after that and began another afternoon of wandering. We headed across a foot bridge for a look over the Thames River and continued across. We walked along the river for awhile on the other side and discovered a little turn off with mostly closed shops and a large spread of really cool wooden carvings/sculptures in the middle of it all. I took a picture with a duck carving and Jeremy with a lion, and we pressed on. We crossed the Millennium bridge back to the other side where we saw St Paul’s Cathedral, we walked forward a bit more then took the London Bridge back to the other side once again. This bridge was not falling down as the childhood song would have us all believe, however Jeremy and I almost fell down several times trying to cross it against the fierce Thames winds. Mystery revealed…sneaky Brits.

On the other side we saw the egg-shaped town hall, the tower bridge (way cooler looking than London bridge), and hoped about in the little bubbly foot fountains. We ventured on and saw Sir Francis Drake’s Famous Galleon (pretty pirate ship), Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, and the London Eye (ferris wheel thing- again to expensive to ride.) we continued walking toward what we hoped would be warm and tasty restaurants but ended up being an endless, rainy, cold pathway to nowhere. We re-routed across a bridge though and finally (as Jeremy noted I was getting to the death stages of hungry and tired) found our way to a restaurant/pub called the Old Monk Exchange, where we enjoyed the “2 meals for 8 Lb” special with a cask ale and a hard cider. Ahhh. After dinner we reluctantly made our way back out into the cold rain toward Victoria station. There we bought 4 “Millie’s Cookies,” took the metro to Euston, and enjoyed our cookies with a hot chocolate while we waited for our train. Jeremy also bought one last cask ale at the Brittania in the station, while I stole some snacks from the free first-class table (if they’re not going to take them then someone should.) Our train platform was announced 4 minutes before it was supposed to leave so we dashed over there and it surprisingly left right on time (too bad for the suckers in the bathroom) we had a confusing layover in Crewe, then made it home to Piccadilly around midnight. Whew, a long two days.

British Terminology
Right Spiffing! = Awesome!
Chips = Fries
Crisps = Chips
Advice Slip = Receipt from ATM (contains no actual advice)
Lifts = Elevators
Queue = Line
Way Out = Exit (public signage)
Cheers = Hello/Goodbye
Bobbies = Police

Lauren

Spring Break Countdown

Mardi Gras (Carnival) in Prague was fun. Our whole group went out together to a club event thing that was organized by some other Americans and had a fun time dancing. I didn't drink anything all night because my stomach was acting up (There has been a miniature plague being passed around our group since day one, that i want to have no part of) so i found it a little harder than usual to strike my groove on the dance floor, (alarmingly harder!) but i still had fun going out and wearing my headdress.

Wednesday was 9am studio as usual (a hungover one for the rest) followed by a Fashion History field trip to Klementinum- a museum with an historical fashion exhibit- and then the Chocolate Museum. We learned all about the history of chocolate, and I am now very grateful to the Mayans and Aztecs for their integral contribution to my life. This museum also featured posters toward the end with “FAQ’s about Chocolate” claiming that eating chocolate actually helps lower cholesterol and prevent cavities….the museum was also sponsored by Belcolade… but I think I might adopt their mentality for a while. Viva Chocolate!

Thursday was more sketching and designing for our midsummer night’s dream costumes in studio and in fashion illustration we drew self-portraits. I haven’t finished mine yet but I like the way its coming.

Friday was a glorious day. I awoke around 10:30 and began my day with a run. I was running towards the big scary TV tower thinking to myself …mmmm its fairly mild out today, how nice, I hope it doesn’t snow later. Then miraculously out of nowhere the sun appeared. . .(cue choruses of hallelujah)… this is its first sighting for a couple of weeks now and I was so bewildered and elated at its spontaneous appearance I almost tripped over my own feet and fell into a little old lady. Lucky for her I was able to catch myself, but i continued running blindly toward the brilliant beacon of sweet spring weather in the sky… ahhhh delicious vitamin D. It was a fickle beacon though and played peek -a-boo with me a few times before I reluctantly returned to the hostel in fatigue. I caught another glimpse of the elusive light on my way into studio, but it was once again fleeting. In studio I made a pair of Capri pants for my trip to Spain this week.- This week is spring break so Jeremy and I have a trip planned for Manchester & London, England and Alicante, Spain! I’m so excited I can hardly sit still and wait, while everyone else is leaving.

Saturday I had another lovely run and then Jeremy and I did laundry all day at the American friendly place a few blocks down. Hooray for smoke free clothing! Later we went to dinner at Sudicku, a small rusticky place around the block. They had delicious cheesy garlic soup, and tasty dark beer called Kozel Cerny. I also had a caprese salad but was too full to finish.

Today was another run, (it’s starting to get nicer out, I can’t resist) some last minute shopping (cute new blue raincoat for drizzly England), and packing finalization. Mostly I’m just trying to distract myself from flipping out, I’m so excited! Especially for Spain. I really miss the Hispanic culture and mentality I experienced in Peru. Prague is a wonderful, beautiful city but the people and lifestyles are very different here and the lingering communism aura can be a little depressing. I’m looking forward to sunny spring when nothing will be able to dampen my mood... But for right now, all I see is the sweet sunshine of Spanish beaches and handmade markets… ahhhhh. Back in a week.

Lauren