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| Roaming through Amsterdam at night I found this sign! KOPKE SEAFOOD!!!!! How cool is that? Maybe it's a distant relative of mine! I never thought of the Kopkes as being a seafood type but you never know. Should have stopped in and talked to the owner haha |
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Forgot about this pic!
Monday, June 6, 2011
Czech Differences
So I finally figured out how to change Blogger from Czech back to English! I can actually start posting again. I have so much to say but I'm going to start by mentioning all the differences between Prague and the US. They're public transportation is amazing. You can get anywhere so easily. They don't even check your passes before you board. They're really trusting. Sometimes they do random checks but that's it. The escalators going to the metro go really fast and they're extremely steep. I finally am getting used to stepping on the escalator just in time. People have a ton of dogs here but they're rarely on leashes, they're so obedient. But people here do not always pick up their dog poo so you have to look out. Also, some people here do not use deodorant and it can get smelly on the metro. But the metros and the stations are so clean and nice. Compared to the loop it's amazing.
The people are so nice here. A lot of them speak English or know a little bit of it. If your lost they're really nice and point you in the right direction. The other night our Social director took us all to one of his favorite beer gardens and it was filled with a lot of locals, a lot of them were middle aged. There was a whole group of them at a table singing and playing on the guitars, it was nice. An old man asked one of my friends to dance, which was pretty cute, just smidge creepy. Later he asked the waitress to dance and she danced with him then got our table up to dance and by the end everyone in the bar was dancing together. We all grabbed hands and danced like we were dancing the hora. Another interesting thing is that open beverages in public is legal. A lot of my friends grab to-go-beers before heading to the next pub. I'm still getting used to it. I want to tell them that they have to finish it before going outside. They also serve beer in large quantities here. My guy friends have two liter bottles of they finish. It's crazy! The people here drink beer all day long, for breakfast lunch and dinner. One of my friends teachers says he likes going to work so he can drink. He said why would he want to drink water all day? That's disgusting.
Also pot and Prostitution here is legal. I think all drugs here are legal, or that's what I've been told. I think it's just if you become reckless they arrest you or you get in trouble. My Czech teacher told me that recently all the adds for escorts has been banned recently so it's not like Amsterdam. My Czech Culture teacher also told me she loves smoking pot, she loves drinking, she loves life. You don't really hear teachers say that lol. But she's definitely a Czech version of a hippie. She grew up in Communist Czechoslovakia and through the revolution. She actually said she liked living under a Communist regime and looks fondly back on it, but I believe she is one of the few. She only liked it because people would get into small illegal groups and enjoy illegal music and things. She didn't have to worry about clothes or makeup. It's really interesting learning what has happened in the Czech Republic the last 100 years with WWII then Russia coming in and making it a communist nation then the Czech Republic gaining their freedom.
Czech crowns are the currency here and I have gained such a bigger appreciation for them. After going to Amsterdam and using euros, czech crowns are nothing. A liter of water here is a dollar. A pint of good beer at a restaurant is three dollars. A big meal is about six dollars. I don't know what I did if I studied abroad anywhere else, I'd have no money left. I've tried to buy some things at stores that I just can not find. I can not find ziploc bags, ziplock containers, or cotton balls anywhere. The gelatos and pastries here are too good and cheap. It's not good. I'm hoping all the walking and stair climbing will work it all off lol. My next post I'll talk about Amsterdam. I'm going to try to figure out how to put up some pictures too. But until then, Caio!
The people are so nice here. A lot of them speak English or know a little bit of it. If your lost they're really nice and point you in the right direction. The other night our Social director took us all to one of his favorite beer gardens and it was filled with a lot of locals, a lot of them were middle aged. There was a whole group of them at a table singing and playing on the guitars, it was nice. An old man asked one of my friends to dance, which was pretty cute, just smidge creepy. Later he asked the waitress to dance and she danced with him then got our table up to dance and by the end everyone in the bar was dancing together. We all grabbed hands and danced like we were dancing the hora. Another interesting thing is that open beverages in public is legal. A lot of my friends grab to-go-beers before heading to the next pub. I'm still getting used to it. I want to tell them that they have to finish it before going outside. They also serve beer in large quantities here. My guy friends have two liter bottles of they finish. It's crazy! The people here drink beer all day long, for breakfast lunch and dinner. One of my friends teachers says he likes going to work so he can drink. He said why would he want to drink water all day? That's disgusting.
Also pot and Prostitution here is legal. I think all drugs here are legal, or that's what I've been told. I think it's just if you become reckless they arrest you or you get in trouble. My Czech teacher told me that recently all the adds for escorts has been banned recently so it's not like Amsterdam. My Czech Culture teacher also told me she loves smoking pot, she loves drinking, she loves life. You don't really hear teachers say that lol. But she's definitely a Czech version of a hippie. She grew up in Communist Czechoslovakia and through the revolution. She actually said she liked living under a Communist regime and looks fondly back on it, but I believe she is one of the few. She only liked it because people would get into small illegal groups and enjoy illegal music and things. She didn't have to worry about clothes or makeup. It's really interesting learning what has happened in the Czech Republic the last 100 years with WWII then Russia coming in and making it a communist nation then the Czech Republic gaining their freedom.
Czech crowns are the currency here and I have gained such a bigger appreciation for them. After going to Amsterdam and using euros, czech crowns are nothing. A liter of water here is a dollar. A pint of good beer at a restaurant is three dollars. A big meal is about six dollars. I don't know what I did if I studied abroad anywhere else, I'd have no money left. I've tried to buy some things at stores that I just can not find. I can not find ziploc bags, ziplock containers, or cotton balls anywhere. The gelatos and pastries here are too good and cheap. It's not good. I'm hoping all the walking and stair climbing will work it all off lol. My next post I'll talk about Amsterdam. I'm going to try to figure out how to put up some pictures too. But until then, Caio!
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Trip to Lidice and Terezin
On Friday I went to Lidice and Terezin. The trips were pretty depressing but interesting. Lidice was a town that Hitler wiped out. When Czechoslovakia was invaded and occupied by the Nazis the president fled to England where he was building a resistance. To show that Czechs were on the allies side and to show they did not like Nazis occupying the country he sent a Czech and a Slovak to assassinate Hitler's number two man, that would take his place if he died, Heinrich Himmler. The assassination was successful and Hitler was majorly pissed. To get back at the Czechs he ordered his men to kill everyone in Lidice and remove it from the map to show the extent to what he could do. So the Nazis went in to the town of 500 people, took all the men and shot them all dead. They took the children away, most were gased in trucks. A hand full of children were chosen to go to an orphanage in Germany. All the women were sent to concentration camps. They got rid of all the evidence that there was a town. They up-routed trees, burned all the buildings to the ground, and bulldozed all of it. Now it's just a large field with memorials. It was really sad, they had pictures and movie clips of the people that lived in the town and the Nazis that destroyed the town took pics of them doing it.
Terezin was pretty sad too. It was the Jewish Ghetto where they waited to be sent to Aushwitz. Hundreds of people died every day because of the horrible conditions. We also saw the gestapo prison where the people they hated the most went. It was where Politicians went and people who they caught trying to escape. It was mostly nonjewish people there. They showed the quarters where the non Jewish people stayed and the conditions were horrible and they barley fed them. I was surprised more people did not die. Then they showed us where the jews stayed in the prison. It made the place where the non Jews stayed look amazing. 60 of them stayed in a small room, they had to sleep standing, there was a little hole in the wall and that's the only fresh air they got. They had no bathroom so they had to try to go in a corner but people would have to step in it because there was no room. Obviously they died very quickly. The gestapo prison was actually the place shown to the red cross to show them that it was a Jewish Resort. They made bathrooms and other things to show them but they were never actually used. They also made a propaganda film there to show that it was an amazing place and Jewish people paid to live there. I saw the film, I don't know where they go their actors, but they looked way too happy and healthy to be the actual prisoners there. They might have been the jewish people who just arrived there or Germans, because they did not want anything getting out of the camp to the Czech people about what was actually happening.
When the Russains came to liberate the town they put up a memorial for all the Jews that died. I was talking to the tour guide and he said one of his relatives drank with the Russains after they liberated the town and one drank too much and started shooting his gun and a bullet hit his relatives lip. His relative was ok, but the man incharge of the Russain troop shot the russian soldier for hurting his relative. I asked if he just shot him in the foot or something but he shot him dead. The tour guide told me that the Russians wanted the Czechs to be allies after the war so they wanted the Czechs to not be against them. I found that interesting.
This was a pretty depressing post, but my next one will be happier!
Terezin was pretty sad too. It was the Jewish Ghetto where they waited to be sent to Aushwitz. Hundreds of people died every day because of the horrible conditions. We also saw the gestapo prison where the people they hated the most went. It was where Politicians went and people who they caught trying to escape. It was mostly nonjewish people there. They showed the quarters where the non Jewish people stayed and the conditions were horrible and they barley fed them. I was surprised more people did not die. Then they showed us where the jews stayed in the prison. It made the place where the non Jews stayed look amazing. 60 of them stayed in a small room, they had to sleep standing, there was a little hole in the wall and that's the only fresh air they got. They had no bathroom so they had to try to go in a corner but people would have to step in it because there was no room. Obviously they died very quickly. The gestapo prison was actually the place shown to the red cross to show them that it was a Jewish Resort. They made bathrooms and other things to show them but they were never actually used. They also made a propaganda film there to show that it was an amazing place and Jewish people paid to live there. I saw the film, I don't know where they go their actors, but they looked way too happy and healthy to be the actual prisoners there. They might have been the jewish people who just arrived there or Germans, because they did not want anything getting out of the camp to the Czech people about what was actually happening.
When the Russains came to liberate the town they put up a memorial for all the Jews that died. I was talking to the tour guide and he said one of his relatives drank with the Russains after they liberated the town and one drank too much and started shooting his gun and a bullet hit his relatives lip. His relative was ok, but the man incharge of the Russain troop shot the russian soldier for hurting his relative. I asked if he just shot him in the foot or something but he shot him dead. The tour guide told me that the Russians wanted the Czechs to be allies after the war so they wanted the Czechs to not be against them. I found that interesting.
This was a pretty depressing post, but my next one will be happier!
Friday, May 27, 2011
My first experiences in Prague!!
I don’t even know where to begin. This is the first time I’ve had enough free time at my apartment this whole week. I’ve been soo busy! And in a half hour I’m going to go another student’s apartment because him and his friends are making dinner. All the other students here are great, we all get along so well. Over just a couple days we became good friends. I have 6 roommates and they’re awesome. My apartment is huge!! And it’s really nice too! Except the bathroom has two toilets…I don’t understand why there needs to be two.
I haven’t been in my apartment too much, I’ve been all over. I’ve had class, which is pretty fun. I’m starting to not fall asleep in class and not get lost on my way there. Yesterday I went with some friends to check out the John Lennon wall and the Charles bridge. It was sooo pretty! I also wrote on the wall. The wall and the bridge were in the very touristy part of Prague and they had some cute shops. We had a regular Czech dinner at a restaurant with Pilsner beer. It had way too much meat though, and gnats kept on flying into my meal. I had goulash soup and that was pretty good. I’ve been to a lot of cafes and pubs. Everything is fairly cheap and a lot of people speak English and are nice. I take the metro and trams everywhere. Their metro is so nice and clean! It’s the exact opposite of the loop.
I have soo much left to say but I need to get ready and leave for dinner! I went to a lot of WWII memorials and concentration camps today and tomorrow I’m going to go to Moravia to go to an art gallery, walk through gardens, and do wine taste testing. The trip to Moravia is going to be amazing! I’ll have to write about both those things the next time I have some free time. Ahoj!
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Best flight ever!
The British Airways flight from Chicago to London was probably the best flight I ever had. I was lucky and got a seat at the beginning of the economy class so I had a ton of legroom, my legs didn’t even touch the wall. I sat in the middle section of seating and had an aisle seat. The person that was supposed to sit in between me and the other guy that had an aisle seat, Vince, didn’t show up so I didn’t have to sit next to anyone and was able to spread out. Vince is a 29 year old that’s from Barrington, IL that is going to Madrid to study abroad for his masters. We talked for a good portion of the flight, which made it go a lot faster. The best part of the flight was the TVs that came up from the seats that had clickers. Using the clicker I was able to play video games!! So fricken awesome. I sucked at racing. You could play multiplayer too.
Also, the food was pretty great. Vince and I traded meals, I took his chicken curry and gave him my pasta. When I told the flight attendants that I wanted to drink Tomato Juice they thought it was funny I said the word tomato differently than them. While at Heathrow airport in London standing in line, or as they call it “queue,” I heard a lady talking and said “stupid Americans.” I didn’t hear what the context was but still…rude, I’m right behind you. But everyone else seems really nice; I’m loving the English accent. Cept the police with the AK47s are kinda scary.
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