Finally, it is here at last! I will soon be leaving Prague to head to Italy for the next 10 days! I am really excited to be traveling to Rome, Florence and Venice, maybe even Pisa! I can't wait to see all my friends studying in Italy for a night as we are able to crash at their place for one night! I am really excited to see them and how their life is in Italy. In other news, my roommate from back home in Manhattan, Monica, came to visit these past few days! When I walked out of my dormitory I saw Monica standing on the sidewalk and I couldn't help but give her a huge hug! I was so happy to see my good old' roommie! Wither her she brought Carrie, and they will be traveling through Italy about the same time we are! I was so happy to have Monica here for the couple of days that she was! We went to dinner at some pretty cool places, a beer garden and club architecktu! Bother were very good and filled with wonderful conversation! I can't wait to get back to Manhattan to start the next college year but not the next school year - a Monica quote. Well that is about it so I hope everyone is doing well and I guess I will post in about a week and a half so until then ...ciao

Friday.... Prague adventures
On Friday Mack and I walked around little quarter to discover some hidden gems. We stumbled upon Wellington palace and meandered through it's gardens and soaked up as much sun as possible.
I guess it was build by a general of some sort during Ferdinand's reign, 1600's. He soon sought the crown and was eventually killed by Ferdinand for his greed. I think Wellington wanted his grounds also to surpass the beauty of the Prague castle (which looks more like a palace then castle).

this is limestone carved to look like a cave wall covered in stalactites

Also on Friday we visited the church of Nicholas. This church is considered to be one of the best examples of High Baroque in Prague. It was built be a father son team, completed in 1761, roughly 60 years after the project began sadly neither father or son saw the building completed.

the dome reflects the celebration of the holy trinity.

We got our window back!! At 9:00 am on Monday morning the same old man who took our mysteriously broken window away returned with it patched, reconstructed and placed it back in it's original spot. We have no idea how our window was broken in the first place, but we are sure glad to see the cardboard makeshift window gone and our glass back.

now that the window is back we definitely get more light in the room.

look at the cute little flower my mom sent me! (I think it's from christopher's)

nothing says classy like cardboard over your window,

it's great for keeping out noise and rain!

photoshop creation

the entire alter

longest stretch of the original Berlin wall

attempts at sculpting I

there is the scene in the background that I am trying to recreate

attempts at sculpting II (not yet completed)
aka school work

what most of the train stations all over the city looked like

Berlin. WOW. Pretty much the coolest city ever, it’s about 3.5 million people big and more tram, train, s-bahns, u-bahns, and other public transpiration systems then I have ever seen in my life. The city was full of new, modern, daring, original architecture that not only excited but illuminated my imagination. I haven’t seen modern architecture like this since I left London, and no offence to London. But it has to be said: London doesn’t have much on Berlin when it comes to the good stuff, Architecture.

Brandenburger Tor

MMM German street vendor pretzel

awesome architecture in berlin

a portion of the wall

We arrived in Berlin about 9 or 10 and suffered through figuring out how to get form the train station to the hostel. Turns out it was a short s-bahn (s train line) ride and literally the train stop was just to the left of our hostel. We crashed needles to say, seeing how we were going to get up at the butt crack of dawn (as my cousin Ryan would say) and visit Berlin’s famous Parliament building.

The Reichstag

looking down from the second platform

The Reichstag Building offers one of the most beautiful views of the city, however on the morning we choose to go it was drizzling and a bit brisk outside. We arrived at 9:30 to avoid the ridiculously long line it is known for having. And by the time we had reached the glass entry way (we waited about 15 min tops) the line had stretched down the stairs on to the plaza and made a left handed turn and continued to the adjacent sidewalk. We reached the first level of the observation deck and admired the mirrored funnel thing and then made our way up the spiraling ramps to the second observation deck where we could see much of the rainy city. We had learned about this building in a previous Environmental Building Systems class and we were impressed to see the building first hand.

super cool church

looking up from inside

For the rest of the day we toured much of the city, navigating our way to an art museum were we took in an art exhibit called melanchlie, which when translated into English sounds pretty much the same as it does in German, Melancholy. It wasn’t nearly as depressing as it sounded, we got to see some works of art by Picasso, Warhol, Hopper and many other great artist. After which we spend the day dogging small rain storms and taking loads of pictures.

Jewish museum

Jewish Memorial

At one point Allison, Mack and myself were tired and wet but were reluctant to head back to our hostel so we decided to grab a movie. Many of the titles that were available at home were sure enough available at this particular theater as well. We noticed that some of the titles were in German and a few in English. Being the level headed girls that we are we choose a movie who’s title was still in English because clearly that signified the film itself would be in English as well. We found our seats in the theater (because here in Europe they are assigned) and hunkered down for a relaxing time. Sure enough the first preview was in German, and the second and the third and so on….soon we became nervous that the film it too would be in German. After about 400 more previews the actual movie came on, the music’s started and images on New York filled the screen. Clive Owen’s face appeared larger than life on the big screen and when he opened his mouth, drew his first breath, he began speaking. I understood what he had been saying, only because I had taken German for a while growing up, but Allison and Mack were pretty much clueless. Then the uncontrollable laughter came. We were laughing so hard I think we all were tearing up. One by one we exited the theater and approached the box office and received a refund for our unfortunate misunderstanding.

fussball!!!!

Saturday was wonderful, it was bright warm and quite the opposite of Friday and boy did we take advantage of it. A few of us started at the Daniel Libeskind building, The Jewish Museum Berlin, and moved to Alexanderplatz seeing various historic building and different instillation art works. Also that afternoon in the city of Berlin there was a soccer gaming going on, a huge match between two archrivals. We HAD to go. We boarded a train headed toward the Olympic stadium where the 1936 games were held. We arrived made our way to the ticket booth and proceed to fin the cheapest ones available, purchased them and made our way to the upper most ring of the stands. It was a pretty good game of back and forth soccer, however the most disappointed part was that neither team scored. I was so looking forward to seeing a bunch of European soccer nuts go absolutely crazy over a goal. These were some intense fans; there was such a tension in the air you could cut with a plastic picnic knife. We made our way to the train station and it was packed. Guards in riot gear over looked the crowd and made sure no one idiot did anything ... well idiotic. It was kind of scary, I’m not going to lie, there were way too many people there, and standing on the platform and when the train came, you went where the crowd pushed you. I finally understood how someone could die from getting trampled on in a large crowd. Our group stayed close and came up with a strategy to get the girls on first and then make room for the boys, it worked like a charm and we were off. The car was full to the brim and was extremely uncomfortable. But as we got further away for the stadium fans began to dwindle and breathing room was once again restored.

Sunday was once again both rainy and partly sunny. We made our way around to Berlin wall memorials and the Pergamonmuseum which showcases the Ishtar gate of Babylon and the Alter of Zeus.

Ishtar gate

dunno know, but it's old and greek

Out of all the side trips I have taken this semester I have to say that the trip to Berlin has been my favorite. I think I was most excited to use my German that I had learned over 11 years ago, I started in 6th grade and ended it in grade 11). And the thing was, it wasn’t all that bad, I was able to say many different things and was able to help our group out a few times. My face must have lit up a thousand times when I could understand what was being said around me, even if it was about our group, it was really exciting. The Germans even looked impressed and a little relived, after serving my friends in English, and then being able to talk to me in German. To tell you the truth it was awesome. It made me want to kick myself in the shin for dropping out of German, especially when I was struggling to get my point across, I kept thinking to myself “this would be easier if you had stuck with it.” But I guess for a weekend stay it was just fine.
So now that I am back I am going to hunker down and get some school work done. So look forward to my next posting of all SCHOOL WORK! Yeah I bet my dad is super excited about that one!

sony center

You know those once in a life time opportunities...
Like getting awesome box seats to a hockey game for free.... well that happened to me! Monday night play-off hockey Sparta-Praha vs. Slavia-Praha. Game two of a seven game series! Wow it was awesome!

So how were the tickets obtained? Alex [my friend from KSU, with whom I go to the same church with] knows a lady through St. Thomas [our church] who asked Alex if he'd like to go. Alex, knowing that I am a fan of hockey, asked me if I wanted to go too. Me thinking that theses were just regular seats, was all about checking out some play-off hockey.

Well when we got there we meet Alex's friends and collected our tickets. We were soon ushered into a small waiting area where we were scanned for weapons and searched for other things no one should bring to a hockey game. Soon we boarded an elevator that took us three stories up and delivered us to a long corridor filled with wooden doors. By this time I knew these weren’t just any seats there were BOX SEATS!!!

We found our room and proceeded to mix and mingle with the other guests who all were 35+ so it was a little awk, but who cares there was a buffet of delicious food. This was looking like a message from GOD! It was truly amazing. We sat through the first period, cheering and holding our breath that the home team would keep their two nothing lead against Sparta-Praha, which they did for two periods thank goodness!
During the first intermission we loaded out plates with chicken breast, Spinach Lasagna, Mashed Potatoes, cooked veggies, and mini-potato pancakes. And for desert there was a multitude of mini chocolate cakes with various fillings, and a platter of fruit. Oh my goodness it was absolutely delicious!

For the second intermission we visited the Czech Hockey hall of fame, which was no bigger then a conference room. Each of the walls consisted of glass display cases filled with hockey jerseys from the beginning of time to more recent Olympic and NHL jerseys, all of course belonging to Czechs who have made it "big."

The end of the game drew near, and the final score was 2-1 with Slavia-Praha tying up the series 1-1. Game three will be in the other Arena, home to Sparta-Praha. Let's hope that Slavia will win this next match up, and hopefully win the play-offs

alex in the hall looking for our SKY BOX!

much closer this time

it cleared out fast

Once again I find myself sitting here on a Sunday afternoon, getting ready to do some work for Monday’s studio. And once again I find myself procrastinating to the eth-degree. But hey they always say "it's the thought that counts."

This weekend was all about wandering around the city and trying to do new things...
We tried to visit the old Jewish cemetery, however since it was Saturday... it was closed...way to remember the Jewish Sabbath is Saturday. But we made up for that small mistake by visiting the Easter festival that is held here in Prague every year [kind of ironic]. Tons of small wooden booths are set up in the main squares. Selling anything from small beer steins decorated with images of Prague to glass encased single cigarettes with a small hammer, proclaiming in Czech “Break in case of emergency.” Mackenzie and I came to the conclusion that these booths sell mainly three things, painted eggs, food, or souvenirs. But wanting to make sure we didn't miss anything we walked down every row and left no booth un-observed. The smells of the festival were amazing; they reminded me of the Green tree festival at home. Where the scent of roasting hot dogs and slow cooking ribs fill the air with their savory temptation. Here it is the sweet smells of all the pastries that fill you lungs and make your mouth water like some Pavlovian Dog. And with almost no thought you could find yourself standing in line for some baked goodie rolled in cinnamon and sugar or for a sweet little ball of gelato which is available in a multitude of fresh fruit flavors all of which look irresistible. But constringent is the name of the game, I just try to remember, smells are always free.

easter fest 2006...

p.s there is someone always making out in my pictures,

the czechs can't keep thier hands off each other, uuuggggh!!

Also this weekend the flat mates and I visited Petřín hill. We set off thinking that the climb to the top of this hill wouldn’t be so bad; after all it’s only a hill. Ha Ha. The walk started off as a meandering path through a nice green park. Then out of nowhere the incline of the hill became intense, with a path no longer made of gently sloping concrete paths but rather steps, and loads of steps. When we finally reached the top of the hill we headed toward the tower, paid our 40 ck and started the vertical climb. This tower is a small replica of the Eiffel tower and while it might be only 60 meters high, because of the naturally high elevation, the observation deck of the Czech version matches the exact height of the French version. Interesting. So, 299 steps later, which felt more like 2,999 steps, we had reached the second observation platform.

From here we could see the entire city, even our dorm and the architecture building. It was a crisp clear day that allowed us to see the outer edges of the city we are calling home. From up here I could understand why they call Prague the city of 1000 spires. Every where I looked i could see hundereds of timy spires reaching for the sky.

After the walk up and down the tower, my legs were a little shaky, not for sure if it was because they were tired or scared of the drop to bellow, but they were sure glad to be at the bottom of the hill again.

[view looking down]

the tower!

stairs going down...all the way down

book sculpture we found in the Prague Lib.

looking inside the book tower

Next week I will be in Berlin on Easter Sunday, so I will do my best to post before I leave and then again when I come back. I hope all is well with all of you, and thanks for reading my blog, my mom relays me messages all the time, so thank very much!

senior pictures at the Praha Zoo

no worries there was glass

look at these animals

do you think he was fooled...nice desert.

this guy was a stud, all he needs is a tux.

polar bears!!! they were hungry.

While my roommate was off exploring the Greece, I stayed home and worked on homework. Boring I know, but sadly the truth. However since it was the weekend and all work and no play makes people really unhappy, the remaining KSU girls and I headed out to the Praha Zoo.
I think the idea originally came while Laura Torres and I were sitting at Bohemian Bagel, overlooking the damage we had just done to a colossal stack of pancakes, bacon, hash browns and, for Laura, eggs. Our bellies were full and out belt buckles were bulging, but pancakes, or even breakfast for that matter on a Saturday morning was a rarity and a treat. It was a really pretty Saturday, the sun was shining and it was slightly warmer than the day before. As we were making our way back to the tram stopped we were surrounded in men and women in spandex shorts and sharp looking running shoes. Apparently we had stumbled across the starting line for the Praha 10 K. GREAT. That was all I needed at that point, after stuffing myself silly and seeing these dedicates athletes, I decided I need to move around walk more before I headed back to the dorm room to work on school work.
After convincing Laura, Allison, and Annie [which wasn't hard] we headed to the metro station and jumped on the green line, transferred to the red line and took it all the way to Nádraží Holešovice where we caught bus 112, which delivered us right to the zoo's door step. The entire trip took us abominutesinuets to get to the zoo, a little long considering that it takes 20 min to get to the zoo at home, but I guess we didn't have to worry about parking! At any rate we strolled through the park and looked at all the strange new animals and were pretty happy when we could identify the ones we recognized from back home.
The zoo is kind of a small one with little habitats for the animals to live in. Sometimes the animals looked really cramped in their fenced off areas. One interesting thing about the zoo was that people were allowed to bring in their dogs. No joke it was weird, to see people and there dogs just looking at other animals, I kind of felt like I was living in the twilight zone. At one point we stacross acorss the German wolf display, in front of it there was a couple watching along with their bull dog. Once the wolf caught a glimpse of the bull dog, it was on. The dog was taunting the poor wolf by growling and kind of charging at the fenced in area. The wolf, not happy about his new spectator, got up from where it was resting and cautiously made his way near the front where the dog was. Pacing back and forth the wolf gave the dog some pretty intense glares, but soon must have realized there was no point to even reacting to the dog, since he [the wolf] was the one behind the fence.
We continued on and saw all the typical zoo animals, zebras, elephants, penguins and leopards, not to mention many many more. We spend four point five hours at the zoo I think. But it was time well spent in the sunny warm weather.

After our excursion I wish i could say that I went right home and worked on my presenuntil untill i was satisfied, however once again not so much the case. But in the end it got done and presentations went well...but that is another story.