Ireland!

This weekend I went on a weekend trip to Ireland! I went with my roommate, Elana, and our friend Jeff.

We flew in to Dublin late Thursday night, and were incredibly excited but also super tired because it was midnight when we arrived. Jeff went to his hotel, and Elana and I went to her friend's apartment, where we crashed for the night.

Friday morning, we all met up and went on a three-and-a-half hour walking tour of the city. The tour was free of cost but tips were encouraged, and it was an excellent tour. We saw Trinity College, Dublin Castle, O'Connell Street, Temple Bar, the River Liffey, St. Stephen's Green, and much more. Our tour guide, Peter, was very enthusiastic and knowledgeable and did a great job of telling the history of the city. Afterwards, we had lunch at a pub. Then, Elana and I wandered for a bit. Afterwards, I went and checked into a hostel because Elana's friend's couch had caused me some serious back pain the night before, and because I wanted to see what it was like to stay at a hostel. I went to Kinlay House, which is right near city hall and near all the action, on recommendation from Bob, who stayed there when he was in Dublin. For 18 Euro, I got a bunk bed with linens and a towel, free wifi, continental breakfast, and lots of other stuff that I didn't get the chance to take advantage of because I was only there for two nights. It was an excellent deal, the staff were incredibly friendly, the place was clean, and I'd highly recommend it.

Friday night was "Culture Night", which meant that a bunch of museums and historic sites were open late and were free to the public. Jeff and I went to see the Book of Kells (which looked... like a book. a pretty book, but a book.) We also went to the National Museum of Archaeology, which was fantastic. They had exhibits on bog people found preserved and incredibly intact, along with some ancient Egyptian and Roman art. After that, we headed to a restaurant near my hostel.

I don't think I've mentioned this about the Czech Republic, but customer service is sorely lacking here. Waitresses and shopkeepers are generally noncommunicative, if not outrightly rude. Rarely does one get a smile or small talk. Apparently I've gotten used to this, because when our lovely waiter came and talked to us, I was thrilled that he was nice to us. He was very kind. At one point, a group of four came in and he was trying to figure out where to put them. I asked if he wanted me and Jeff to move so that the group could sit together, and he chuckled and said no, it was alright, but that I was a sweetheart and thanks so much. Anyways, apparently I had made a friend.

Saturday, all three of us went on a tour outside of the city. The tour, by Over the Top Tours, took us through County Wicklow and Glendalough. I must admit, I was a bit disappointed by Dublin as a city, but the countryside was everything I had expected and more. We saw peat bogs and hills and forests and waterfalls and lakes, an old monastery, and everything was incredibly green, and there were sheep... it was fantastic. The tour guide was very cool, and told us about both historical sites but also where celebrities had stayed on past visits (Mia Farrow and Daniel Day Lewis have homes in County Wicklow, and many celebrities including Mick Jagger, the Beatles, Michael Jackson, and Mel Gibson have spent time there at one time or another). I took about 8 zillion pictures, and loved every minute of it. We also saw where scenes from Braveheart and PS, I Love You were filmed. The tour was definitely the highlight of the whole weekend.

After that, Elana's friend Micah joined us and we went to dinner at a genuine Irish pub. I had a shepherd's pie and chips, and had a shot of Jameson Irish Whiskey with my meal. Then, we went back to the restaurant where Jeff and I had been the night before for dessert. The waiter recognized me, continued his witty banter, and in the process dubbed me "Rosie" (I have no clue why).

After a lovely dessert, we headed to a nearby pub to take in the famous Dublin nightlife. We found one with a guy playing live music, it was just him on his acoustic guitar, and he was really good. We sat and talked and watched football, and me and Jeff took a shot of Jameson, while Elana enjoyed a Smirnoff Ice. After awhile, we decided to check out the nightclub downstairs from the pub. It was an 80s themed club, and when we got there it was pretty dead, but it picked up towards the end of the evening. We had a great time dancing. At that point, it was time for all of us to hit the sack, because we had had such a long day.

Sunday morning, we met up, and Jeff and I headed to see St. Patrick Cathedral while Elana and Micah went to the Jewish Quarter. We weren't able to go into the church because services were going on, but we got to see the lovely park next to it. After that, we basically met back up with Elana and Micah and chilled for the rest of the afternoon until we had to head back to the airport.

The trip was, all in all, a great success. I enjoyed Ireland, and hope to go back someday (seeing as I didn't get to go to Knock or Cork!)

I have put off this blog post long enough! Numerous times now, I've sat down to blog but have felt overwhelmed because so. darn. much. has happened since last time. So I have decided that I will give you an extremely watered-down version of recent events.

My friend, Sam, came to visit me the weekend of the 9th! He stayed Thursday through Sunday. We had a fantastic time, and it was wonderful to hang out with someone from home. We went to the Castle, St. Vitus Cathedral (even up in the tower!) and Old Town Square, and it was fun just to show him the city. It made me realize how quickly i've adapted to life here, and how much I had already learned even though I had only had one week of class!

I've been in class for a couple weeks now. So far, they're all pretty interesting. Here's the breakdown:
- Czech Republic in Transition, Communism to the EU: This class was one I wasn't looking forward to taking, as it focuses on economics, not my cup of tea. The readings are hard for me to get through, especially since the only time I've ever taken a course in Econ was junior year of high school. However, the professor is INCREDIBLE. He's sarcastic and funny and tells funny stories and is really good at keeping us engaged.

- Prague, Vienna, and Budapest, An Intellectual History: This class is really interesting in that it's interdisciplinary, and we cover a lot of random subjects. To illustrate, the first week we talked about the famous Ring Street in Vienna along with architecture in Budapest and Prague. The second week we talked about some philosophy and applied it to Kafka's Metamorphosis. It's a bit difficult for me to bounce around from subject to subject so quickly, but the content of the course itself is incredibly interesting. The professor is a very nice, somewhat softspoken, but nonetheless witty man, but unfortunately, he has a kind of monotonous voice that makes it very easy to zone out.

- Political and Cultural History of Eastern Central Europe: This class makes me feel inadequate, because I obviously have forgotten, or simply haven't learned, much world history. The focus of my World History class in high school leaned towards ancient history, and I feel like WWI-present got squished in at the last second. However, I'm keeping pace alright, and it's really fascinating stuff. It's incredible to get a Czech perspective on historical events. For example, the Munich agreement is referred to as "The Munich Betrayal". When you read about it in American textbooks, they made the agreement seem like a desperate, yet noble attempt at appeasement. Not so here. Anyways, the main instructor has been out of town for the past week and a half, so we've had a substitute who tries very hard but whose English isn't the greatest.

- Nationalism, Minorities, and Migration in East/Central Europe: Block class. Which to me makes this class difficult to sit through. However, the contents of the class have been interesting so far. I'm particularly looking forward to learning about the Roma people, especially with how much they've been in the news lately due to their expulsion from France.

So that's the scoop on my classes. As a whole, they are going ok. However, there is a TON of reading for these classes. It can be overwhelming at times, and I can't tell if it's because there's more than I'm used to, or if it's because it's not in subjects that I'm particularly well-versed in. Either way, I'm doing my best to stay on top of things despite a strong knack for procrastination.

This is one heckuva long post, so I'll stop here. More about things that have happened, like my trip to Cesky Krumlov and such, next time.

Czech word of the day: Kostel- Church

This is a very strange post for me to write, because it deals with events that caused a great amount of introspection on my part.

As you may or may not know, for the past few years I have no longer considered myself to be Catholic. I tend to identify myself as a secular humanist or agnostic when asked about my faith. I maintain that I am open to discovering a spirituality that "fits", but have yet to do so. And while I respect religious beliefs and practices, I have a personal distaste for organized religion in general.

So, some people might find it strange that I opted to head to Catholic Mass today.

One of the sights I have wanted to see in Prague is the Infant of Prague statue, which can be found at the Church of Our Lady Victorious in Old Town. While looking up information on it yesterday, I found that there is an English mass at noon every Sunday. I remembered how cool it was to go to Mass in Notre Dame when I was in Paris, so I thought hey, why not.

I went by myself, because almost everyone in the program is Jewish. I dressed kinda nice because I wasn't sure how formal of a parish it was going to be. On the way to the church, I stopped by Charles Bridge to take pictures of the statue of St. John Nepomucene.

I got to the church like an hour and a half early, but it was open, so I decided to go in to see the statue. The church was interesting, because it had very bland walls and architectural elements, but then tons of golden decorations. Baby Jesus was hanging out in a glass box on the side of the church, surrounded by tons of gold cherubs and such. My cynicism broke through at that point, and I caught myself smiling at the absurdity that people regularly come from all over the world to see this 1 foot tall doll made of wax and wood.

I had some time to kill, so I went to a cafe, and returned in time for mass. Imagine how I felt when the first notes of the song "Sing a New Song" began playing on the pipe organ! I was caught off-guard a bit, but it was nice.

The priest was from India, I believe, and had an Indian and Czech accent when he spoke English, so it was a bit hard to understand him at times. That being said, the whole mass was familiar. I got a bit misty-eyed a couple of times, because it was the most home-like setting I've been in since I've gotten here. The homily was very good, and the priest even addressed the main issue I had with the particular gospel. It was hard to tell who were regular parishoners and who were just visiting like me, but even the lectors wore jeans, and the whole service was very casual. Two little girls were in charge of the collection, and the whole thing had a very St. Pat's vibe to it.

So, who would have thought that the place in Prague where I feel most at home would be a church? I'm certainly considering going again sometime.

Nice Driveway!

So, today was long, but good.

It started out with Czech class, which honestly at this point is nearly unbearable. Tomorrow is our last 4-hour class, thank heaven. Hopefully having other classes will give me a break from all the intensive linguistic torture that is the Czech language.

After class, I went on a tour of Josefov, the Jewish Quarter of Prague. This wasn't a required tour for me, but I decided to go along cuz I figured I might learn something. Unfortunately, I wasn't aware that it was going to be a 5-hour long excursion. Our tour guide was interesting, but she kept going off on tangents, and then giving us only 10 minutes to look around the synagogues. Anyways, it was pretty awesome to go into the Old-New Synagogue, which is the oldest continuously-run synagogue in the world (built in the 13th century). We also went into the Spanish synagogue, and two others whose names escape me at the moment. By far the most moving part was the synagogue that had the names of all of the Czech Jews that had died in the Holocaust written on the walls... it was mind-boggling to see so many names.

This evening was also interesting. Zuzana had some friends that wanted to hang out with us and practice their English, so me and Elana went out with them. The guys were named Jara and Jon. They took us to a club called Cross Club, which was AWESOME. It's really tough to describe, but basically the whole building, including the patio outside and all the rooms inside, is decorated in scrap metal sculptures. There were tons of gears and pipes and all kinds of stuff everywhere you looked. Two bands played while we were there, the first was a kinda crappy Ska band, and the other was a rock band. It was really interesting to sit and talk with Jon and Jara, but I got the feeling they thought that we were kind of killjoys because we refused to drink much cuz it was a school night. But they were really cool and really nice, and I hope we get to go out with them again.