Catching Up... For real this time.

OK! I have decided to do a hard core Readers Digest version of the past month or so...

-Leah came to Prague! We had a superb time! We did a free walking tour of the city which ended up being really entertaining. We went to the Zoo. We did a Pub Crawl. We went to the castle and all the other big sites. We had a fantastic time hanging out together!

-Leah and I went to Vienna with my friend Kate! That was a good weekend. Vienna was a nice city. The highlights from that trip would definately be seeing Schonbrun Palace and eating weinerschnitzel!

-Leah went home. That part was sad. It was very fun to have her come out and visit me!

- I went to the Jewish Quarter of Prague! I had been in the Jewish Quarter before, it isn't like it is closed off to the world anymore, but I hadn't been inside any of the sites. I went to the Pinkas Synagogue which is very cool. On all the walls of this synagogue are the names of all the Jews in Prague that were taken to Terezin Concentration Camp which is nearby to Prague. Also, in the upstairs of the synagogue is artwork by kids from the same camp that was done as art therapy and later found when the camp was liberated. It was very cool.

-I went to ITALY! I spent just under a week in Italy with my friends Kate and Mikaela. We flew into Milan and spent an hour or so there before hopping on a train to Venice. We spent about two days in Venice. We rode a gondala. Ate some pasta and seafood. Saw the sights. Went to a big fish market. The depressing thing about Venice? The Bridge of Sighs (which I consider to be semi famous) was under some sort of construction! It kind of killed it for me. Construction has been plaguing my European experience. After Venice we got on a train to Florence. We got in there pretty late and met up with some couchsurfers that were hosting us for the two nights we were in Florence. They didn't have a place for us to sleep that night however, so they offered to stay out with us all night. After a drink at one bar, they took us to a secret pastry shop. Then after our pastries, they took us to a place with a pretty view of the city at night. Then realizing how tired we all were, it was decided that we would sleep in their car which was named "The Car of the Dreams." And folks, it really was! It was tiny too! The five of us squeezed into the little car and slept inside the car when it was parked in a random parking lot in Fiesole. It wasn't as shady as it all sounds though. I promise! The next day we toured Florence and saw The David! As well as some other sites. The David was pretty amazing though. That night they hosted us at their "House Near the Sea" for dinner and drinks. We slept there and the next morning they were nice enough to drive us and drop us off in Pisa where we spent about an hour. Just enough time to take some cheesy tourist shots with the Leaning Tower and then get to the train station! From Pisa we headed to Cinque Terre. This is a set of 5 small towns built into cliffs right along the sea. They are all connected to each other by some intense hiking trails and a train track. They are all gorgeous as well! We hopped around from town to town. Ate some delicious pesto for lunch and some fantastic seafood pasta for dinner. Also sipped the local wine. At the end of this long day we got on a train headed for Rome. It was an overnighter that got us into Rome at about 5am. We arrived and since nothing was really open yet we decided to take a nap on the floor of the station. At about 8 or 9am we woke up and headed to the Colleseum and Roman Forum. Those were both very cool to see. It was one of those moments where you are standing there and realize that you are staring at the Colleseum. Something you have seen many times in books and in movies, but never really thought you would get the chance to see in person. It was awesome. After those sights we went in search of a place to sleep. We found a hostel, dropped our bags, and headed to see more of Rome. We went to the Spanish Steps where we sat and felt cool chillin' on some steps. We went to the Trevi Fountain where we each tossed three coins in and drank some of the water. It is said that if you toss three coins in or if you drink the water it ensures you will one day return. We did both. Better safe than sorry. We went to the Pantheon which was pretty freaking sweet as well. After all this we went back to the hostel, showered (which we hadn't done in a while) and then hung out. Our hostel was having a bruschetta and sangria night so we stayed in and had a great time meeting people from all over the world. That is probably one of my favorite things about hostels. You can literally meet people from all over. I have friends from 5 continents now! We are still working on meeting someone from Africa. The next day we got up early and headed to The Vatican! I was very excited for this part of our trip. We went on a guided tour of the Vatican Museum which was very benefical as there were no signs up to tell us what we were looking at. We went into the Sistine Chapel which was GORGEOUS. And in case you were curious Kim, no one needed to trash their bag afterwards. We then went to St. Peter's Basillica. First stop was to the grottoes where we wandered among the tombs of past popes. Then we went into the actual basillica part and wandered around. It was very big and very pretty. After we had our fill of The Vatican we went for more pasta and then went to our hostel to get our stuff and then headed to the airport. Italy was pretty sweet. I liked it there alot.

So that portion of this post ended up being alot longer that I had planned.

-After I got back from Italy I enjoyed being back in Prague. As you have now seen, I was running like crazy all over the place. So it was definatelly nice to be back home and sleeping in my own bed for a while.
Enjoying Prague consisted of hanging out with people from my program, going to a Slavia-Praha vs Brno soccer game, and Thanksgiving! It was very hard to not be home for Thanksgiving, but luckily I was surrounded with other people that have become like family and who also were having a hard time being away. Along with 4 girls from my program, a Czech girl who is friends with one of those girls, and one mom, I celebrated a Czech Thanksgiving! I was in charge of dessert and people wanted somthing chocolatey. So I made French Silk Pie, one of my favorites. Then I found out there was going to be no stuffing. Thanksgiving without stuffing? Not ok. So I decided to be ambitious and make stuffing. Fun fact: The Czech Republic does not have any kind of premade stuffing like StoveTop. So I truly was ambitious and made stuffing, for the first time in my life, from scratch. It ended up being quite delicious. And the pie turned out great too. We also had salad, rolls, mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potatoes, and chicken. No turkey, it isn't common here in Prague and when you find it, it is really over priced because the stores know only the Americans will be buying it. But Thanksgiving was still pretty good, different but good.

-The other exciting thing that happened was April's parents Sandy and Gary coming to Prague! April is my brother's girlfriend and I had the chance to see her mom a few times while she was visiting. We went on a ghost tour and a boat tour or Prague. Both were pretty neat and it was fun to get the chance to know Sandy.

Well that just about sums it all up! I have caught up! However, I will have a great post about my last weekend coming soon. I promise! Now that I am close to caught up I refuse to get that far behind again!

Rugby Boys, Burgers, and Torture

It has been a busy few days in Praha. I spent Friday and Saturday afternoon at Joyride, an extreme sports and music festival in Prague. There was rugby going on but don't worry mom, I didn't play. I wanted to, I brought clothes to play in, but I didn't play. It was just some men playing beach rugby, which meant they were barefoot on the sand. And they weren't really playing a game, it looked like my team when we practice. It was a little weird but still fun to watch. They also had a cool ropes course that I did. I kind of got stuck at the end though and had to be lowered down on a rope by the man running it. That was awkward but still fun! I also went back to Prague Castle on Saturday morning with two of my roommates, it was still gorgeous and we decided pictures just don't capture the beauty that is there. After this we went to the Medieval Torture Museum that is by the Charles Bridge. That was disturbing but well worth checking out. I am glad we went but I am even more glad that none of those things are used today! Saturday night on our way back from Joyride my roommate Hayley and I decided to stop for dinner and we found this small pub near school that advertised for "Seriously Huge Burgers" so we decided to give it a shot. It was delicious! The whole place was kind of an American style place and played American music so it was like a little slice of home! It was a very fun weekend just wandering around and exploring Prague!

Some people have asked for my address while I am here. Letters and postcards (which I would LOVE to get!) you can send to my apartment. That address is...
CEA
Anna Fraine
čsl. armady 34
Praha 6
160 00
Czech Republic

Packages or anything that won't fit in our small mailbox have to go to the CEA office at school and I don't know that address.

I love it here. The food is good (Goulash soup in a bread bowl- amazing!), the people are nice (for the most part at least!), and the beer is cheap! Where can you go wrong? Maybe I just won't come home. Hmm...

My First Week In Prague!

Ahoj!

It has been an eventful few days here in Prague and I have almost been here for a whole week! That just doesn't seem right. Saturday we had a historical city tour that led us from Wenceslas Square and ended near the Prague Castle. Our tour guide, Dagmar, led us along and shared little bits of information along the way. We stopped at the astronomical clock which was so cool. We didn't see it chime but I do plan on going back at some point to see it.

After the clock, we went on to the Charles Bridge. The bridge was crowded and busy with other tours, tourists, street performers, and little booths of things to buy. We didn't really stop on the bridge much until the end where there was a little more space. But it is definately a very cool piece of the city that I have already been back to multiple times. On the other side of the bridge we took a quick break to grab coffee or a snack. I went to use the restroom but had to pay 5crowns to get in and there was a black light in the stall. So bizzare. After the break we went by the most narrow point at Prague. Mom, you would go crazy in here. Dagmar told us that you have to be sure to go through when the light is green. Otherwise you could end up like some large German woman who got stuck in the middle and had to be rubbed down in soap so they could slide her out. Then we went to see the peeing statue. That was an interesting piece of art. Apparently you can text some number and they will write you message in the water.

After this stop we wandered through town and heard some small facts as we worked our way towards Prague Castle. This was gorgeous! There were some awesome views of the city. We went into the castle courtyard and were right outside the cathedral which was incredible! It costs money to go anywhere in the castle so we couldn't do that as part of our tour, but to go in the cathedral was free so we did that. It was so amazing in there. After the castle we wandered back down towards where our school is and we ended our tour there.

That night my roommates and I all went to another apartment of people from our program. There ended up being quite the crowd there and we had a great time mingling and getting to know people.

On Sunday, I decided to make myself some dinner. If you haven't already heard the embarrasing story from my mother, here it is. I have a new rule for shopping in Europe. If you plan on buying some sort of item for cooking such as sugar, flour, or baking soda, you must look up what that word is before going to buy it. Why did I create this rule for myself? Because otherwise you may end up using powdered sugar in place of flour. And let me tell ya folks, mac and cheese just doesn't taste quite the same when you try to make the cheese sauce with powdered sugar. Grandma, please don't kick me out of the family for this one. So that was one of my "Oh, I guess I'm not in the states anymore" moments. It just means I know have a bag of powdered sugar to make an abundance of muddy buddies and frosting with. Any other suggestions?

Yesterday was my first day of school. I had my Exiles and Expatriate literature course. The nice thing about school here is each class, except for my Czech class, meets only one day a week. And the nice thing about my schedule is I only have one class a day. Katie and I went early to get our books and get other things at the school set up. It was a very busy afternoon. Class was good. My teacher has lived in many different parts of the states but was in Seattle for the last 8 or so years before moving to Prague. He and I had a nice chat about Seattle, and Greenlake, and Wallingford, and Magnolia. After class got out I came home to meet my other three roommates and we went to the CEA Welcome Dinner. It was very fun to get to relax and see people again and meet more people. Today was my second day of class and I had Czech. It is a pretty small class but I seem to like the teacher. He was shocked to hear that I had never learned a second spoken language. But I am excited to try to learn this one!

That has pretty much summed up my last few days here. I hope everyone is doing well. I miss you all!

Na zdravi!

Anna