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.