slow hands

when i left for spring break at the end of february, old town square looked as it always did, a large expanse of cobble stones and a big statue of jan huss. upon my return from spring break one can imagine the surprise i felt when i saw that old town square had been transformed into an easter wonderland with an egg tree and lots of little souvenir and trdlo stands, and a ridiculous increase in tourists who get in my way.

here in the czech republic we celebrate easter a little differently than in the states. they don't play the easter bunny bullshit game.

on easter monday the boys are supposed to spend the rest of the day hitting the girls with willow rods and then the girls are supposed to give the boys painted eggs to make peace. some guys go as far as dousing the girls in cold water. apparently they're supposed to appreciate all this.

so. it's easter monday and i'm on the metro on my way to the institute, ipod playing, just having some chill time on the way. at one of the stops three boys, who all looked about 12 years old, get on with their willow rods and baskets in hand. they move into the metro car behind me, and i hear them talking and laughing together. next thing i know

WHOP!

popped right in the ass.
no, i didn't give them any eggs.

this weekend i'm going to berlin (!!!) and then i only have three weeks left. it's going to be a total shock when i land in raleigh and it's in the mid 70's. it's been snowing here off and on for the past week.

time is flying by. guh.

visual pleasure

mmm...baby bottle wine and sweet sangria

spring break. paris. barcelona. mind blowingly great. here's a brief run down of events:

paris
-stayed in montmartre (yes, where amelie lived!) which was a really cute section of paris.
-went to a party hosted by Arielle (the really awesome girl we stayed with). people from different parts of europe, all really nice, good night.
-did a lot of the touristy things: eiffel tower, the louvre, arc de triumph, notre dame...

-celebrated my 20th birthday by going to the most amazing fondue restaurant. the place was packed so they would make you climb over the tables to sit down. oh, and they served you wine out of glass baby bottles (i swear there was something more than just wine in those bottles)
-lots of walking around, eating food, enjoying the sights, loving the city

paris definitely became my favorite city visited so far. it had such charm and was so pretty...guh. one day i'm going to open a sweet cake shop there, i swear. ;)


barcelona
-our hostel was right on the beach! so we spent a lot of time out there.
-mmm...sangria. best idea ever.
-went to the aquarium...saw a lot of fish and learned that the male genitals of a shark are called claspers...neat, right?!
-went to a flamenco dance show. i seriously thought this guy's legs were going to fly off from moving them so fast.

-looked at gaudi architecture. i really liked the crazy, colorful buildings gaudi designed; different than any other architecture i had ever seen.

-i also discovered the greatness of donars...yum. donars. so good. thank you molly collins for giving me the gift of delicious donar knowledge. no, this isn't a spanish dish, but it changed my life nonetheless.


my spring break was insanely good, but i'm actually really happy to be back in prague. i'm trying to compile a spring break video to post on here. i don't know when i'll have it up, but hopefully soon.

only six weeks left, so sad :(

love.

!!!

it's my mother-effing birthday!

and i'm in paris.

i'm going to eat fondue and drink wine out of a baby bottle.

:)

relieved anticipation

okay, so i know you've been patiently waiting that video post that i promised a while ago. well. here it is. it's lame (i lost the enthusiasm to make it, plus i always forgot to bring my camera) but at least i delivered.

ENJOY!

i look/sound like a dumbass in that video, but that's okay. i'll try to make a better one next time.

Upcoming Events:
Saturday: Paris
Monday: my 20th birthday
Wednesday: Barcelona
hells yeah.

the good times are killing me :)

orangutans are skeptical of changes in their cages

Zoo

kangaroos!

the mountain goat exhibit was so cool

the animals were so close

the flamingos made a lot of noise

the elephants had sweet beats

Vyšehrad

cathedral with great bells

amazing view

libuse and premysl

staying classy

on tuesday everyone in the group got dressed up and we went to the opera. we saw rusalka which is the story disney based "the little mermaid" off of. the theater was incredible.

view from my seat

are you seeing this chandelier?! this ceiling?!

despite being really, really high up, i had a great seat. i was right in the middle. i used the little opera binoculars during the performance. the show itself was okay; the costumes were great but the sets were lacking. to me, the most amazing part about it all was the fact that none of the singers had mics on. these people were seriously belting it out.

no, there was no breaking glass.

blurry shot...wasn't really supposed to take pictures

i am currently in the process of trying to make a video to post on here. it will definitely be random and scattered, but that's pretty much how things work around here. i hope to finish it before spring break, but we'll see.

speaking of videos, i watched a really cool czech movie for my literature class the other day. it's called kytice, or "bouquet" in english. the movie is a compilation of seven old czech fairytales. i just found it to be really whimsical, sometimes a little dark. worth checking out at least.

that's all for now.

much love.

amsterdam/milano/bergamo/excitement

this past week has been crazy-full of traveling, sightseeing, fashioning nonsense.

AMSTERDAM
Bikes
there are bikes everywhere. seriously. every one out two people in amsterdam owns a bicycle. walking down the street you see rows of bike racks filled and every road has a large bike lane. also if you hear a bike bell ring you better effing move out of the way.

Canals
before my trip, i honestly had no idea that amsterdam was built around a canal system. i was pleasantly surprised by the canals and the bridges of the city and found them to be very charming. every view from a canal bridge was a great one.

Red Light District:
everywhere you turn is a sex shop with every kind of toy you could conceive of staring you in the face. red lights cover every window where a half-naked girl stands shaking her hips and tapping her ring on the glass at you. horny, drunk men from all over the world mill up and down the streets oogling the girls and sometimes entering their red rooms.
"15 minutes of fun" costs between $50-$70 euro. everytime you ask them to do something extra (aka take their shirt off, let you touch their breasts, etc) costs extra. needless to say the tab can get really high really fast.

van Gogh Museum
interesting experience...not just because of the art.

Anne Frank House
this was one of my favorite parts of the trip. the museum itself was really nice and just the experience of being in the tiny house where the Frank family lived for so long was very moving.

the culture was a little bit of a shock, it being so liberal (not that i minded) and coming from such a conservative country like the US. but, overall i found it to be a really great city and would love to visit there again.

MILANO
my studio travelled to milan to attend the moda in fashion fair. one can obviously tell that fashion is important to this city from the countless designer stores and showrooms that appear on every corner. the people here are immaculately dressed and way too good looking.
no really. everyone here is VERY good looking.

Moda In
the fashion fair showed all the upcoming trends for the spring/summer 2009 collections. the fair was divided into four areas: color, fashion, innovation, and decoration. in these sections we saw the color palettes, materials, accessories and more of season to come.

1) metallics are out, pearlized fabrics are in
2) four main color trends:
color techno
low frequency
high definition
eco allure
3) accessories: mother of pearl accents

Duomo
very large cathedral in the center of milan. ehh...gothic cathedrals all begin to look the same after a while.

Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio
this was an ancient church we visited in milan. i liked it because it wasn't yet another gothic cathedral with insane detail everywhere. it was simple and simple is nice.

Monumental Cemetary
this was my favorite part of the milan trip. this was the most amazing, ornate, over the top cemetary i have ever seen. we all wander around in it for an hour or so. it was a great place to think and observe. the graves all had amazing sculptures on them, some graves were actually huge monuments that families of the deceased could go into to pray, etc.

to be honest i didn't really like milan that much. as a city i felt that it lacked character and it just seemed very commercial.

BERGAMO
bergamo is a small city near milan. we came here for the day because it's a pretty. i enjoyed bergamo more than milan. it was more like how i imagined an italian city to be.

this has been a really long, but fun week. lots of exposure, lots of excitement. i'm actually looking forward to a break from planes and traveling.

EXCITING/AMAZING/MIND BLOWING NEWS
radiohead may 9th. if anyone is interested in going with me just let me know
oh, and jonny greenwood is going to father my children :)

red letter days

this will probably be my last blog post for a week or two. tomorrow i leave for amsterdam and the day after i get back i leave for milan. i also booked tickets for paris and barcelona for spring break...mmm.

don't hate me for being a jet setter ;)

i promise to post some pictures from my amsterdam and milan adventures soon after i return.

in other news:
i attended a student fashion show yesterday. the theme was "seven deadly sins" and it had some really amazing work. very inspiring. we had front row seats in a baroque church packed with people. i think my professor is kind of a big deal over here.

side note:

i doubt you read this but...tomorrow was/is an important day for you and me.

i hope you are doing well.

weekend adventures

to begin...many thanks go out to toni, margie and jensen for the fabulous video shout out. i love you and miss you all SO MUCH! we all need to plan a trip here so we can drink beer and enjoy the sights togetherrrrrr.

first stop:
ceske budejovice
here we toured the budweiser, budvar brewery. czech budweiser is not to be confused with american budweiser. anheuser busch stole the name from this company and bottled shitty beer under the label.

let us begin our tour.

mmm...free beer, cute tour guide, secrets of success

second stop:
cesky krumlov
welcome to the town where the horror movie "hostel" was filmed. it was actually really hard to imagine this as the setting of a torture film because it was so cute and unthreatening.

castle tour, discotheque, really cold