em la sinh vien

I feel like my language skills are exactly one country behind where I actually am.

This past summer in Viet Nam, I felt I was trying to speak French everywhere -- and I actually did in a lot of places, including Bangkok.

But here? Instead of Czech, I've been using my very, very, very limited knowledge of Vietnamese to communicate with the local shopkeepers instead of Czech or English (...or French or Chinese). The reason? All the little shop owners down my street are Vietnamese, with stores selling bags, food, water, fruit, alcohol, etc. It's definitely not what I expected, but it's something weirdly comforting and familiar to have around.

The owner of the store down the street definitely recognized me today from the one time I popped in to look at bags and ended up just getting chocoalte (Milka strawberry joghurt). After a few conversational nothings -- including a mix-up where I thought they were asking me if I was a student, but I was actually replying "Yes, I'm an American student" to them telling me that I was very pretty -- I ended up deciding that the 300 crown bag I liked was "dat qua" ("too expensive"). Looking back, that was like $15 or so, so I'm going to go back to the store on Monday and just get it.

Then just now, on our way back from the gym (my first time at the Flora fitness one, and it felt so good to be on an elliptical again!), we popped into a little store to get a bottle of water and a Diet Coke for Amanda, only to find a friendly store owner who asked if I was Chinese, Vietnamese, or American and then tried to make conversation with me in both Vietnamese and Czech.

To be honest, I'm not entirely sure how much I was able to communicate to him, but just I was stepping out, I hear him go, "Em oi!" (which essentially is the phrase you use to get the attention of someone younger than you). I turn around, and he comes over and gives me and Amanda each a free apple.

Vietnamese: 1, Czech: 0.

bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens

There is actually so much to say about my last weekend in Vienna that I have absolutely no idea where to start and can therefore only say this:

The entire three days and three nights of feeling too much at home at Inga's little restaurant, wandering around in the freezing wind and drizzling rain, being in total awe of the Hapsburg's, getting creeped out by seeing real skeletons for the first time in the cathedral's catacombs, dancing to American music, meeting Austrian people (who seemed much friendlier and goofier than Czech people), having endless amounts of pastries, ice cream, falafel, hummus, strum, coffee, strudel, chocolate, wine, and schnitzel, and getting driven around by our new Austrian friend Philipp on our last night made all four of us girls really realize how much we were missing in Prague. The bus ride back was pretty much exclusively NYU kids trying to make it back before class Monday, and the four of us just couldn't understand how they were all ready to go back to Prague and we still weren't. Why didn't we make as many Czech friends as we did Austrian friends from Vienna in those three days? How did we find such charming little places and not have "our place" in Prague yet? Why have we eaten so much good food in Vienna, but haven't treated ourselves in Prague? Walking back from the metro stop, we realized that our dorm was definitely "familiar," but it wasn't "home" yet.

I've made a resolution to really discover and fall in love with Prague and so far am proud to say that I've been sticking to that goal pretty well. My internship's office is in Lucerna, arguably the oldest working movie theater in Europe, and it's located in this great (though touristy) area with tons of shops and cafes. Granted, the down side of working in such an old, historical building is that on my very first day I got stuck in the elevator because the elevator is wooden and nonstop. Little rectangular boxes come down that you basically jump into and then jump out of, but I was texting on my way down and didn't realize that I had forgotten to jump off at the bottom floor until I heard a shout and saw some guys peering down as I disappeared deeper, deeper, deeper into the darkness... only to see giant wooden knobs turn my little elevator box around and swing me back up about five minutes later. I was seriously getting worried though.

Besides Stupid American moments like that (others include finding out the laundry detergent we had bought was actually fabric softener and not detergent and telling my professor in Czech class "Thank you, urine"), my newest hobby/obsession is walking around until I find a random cafe that I like and sitting down to a cup of tea or coffee to journal or read for hours and hours (...by which I mean at max probably two and a half hours because I feel like I rarely have a block of free time longer than that during which I don't have to meet up with someone or go run errands somewhere...). It's helping me feel more settled in a city that I've always liked but haven't fallen totally in love with yet or really felt completely a part of. Maybe it's because everyone talks about how the Czechs don't smile at strangers that much, or maybe it's the totally unrecognizable language, but I think a lot of it might just be in my head.

And that I can fix.

i almost got ran over by a tram this morning

I have no luck with castles.

On our trip to Northern Bohemia this last weekend, after winning a bottle of tequila at a club the night before for a dance contest that a few of us (including me) didn't even know we were in, we spent the second day attempting to tour the castle there. Problem was that the tour was entirely in Czech and my attention span has only gone downhill since summer started, so me, Amanda, Lily, Hannah, Casey, and Becca found ourselves drifting away from the tour. We stumbled upon an unlocked door that led into what looked like a dungeon, with a tunnel leading down, down, down into cells filled with torture devices.

Dark, creepy dungeon versus tour entirely in Czech?
Like you even needed to ask.

It was seriously cool, but when we finally got out we realized that the place was totally empty.

Doors?
All locked, including the front door we came in through.
Cell phones?
No service, no minutes.
Tour group?
Nowhere to be found.

We were actually locked inside a castle.

Somehow it feels wrong even just typing that last sentence. I mean, yeah, worse things have happened, and it actually made me feel like I was more in a castle and less in a museum by being away from a large tour group, but still! How does that even happen?

Fast forward to today and, after a frantic morning of booking bus tickets and hostels to Vienna completely last minute (we're now leaving at 5 pm TOMORROW right after class, meaning we're staying an extra night than we planned -- thank god for cell phones, Internet, and Skype), I hiked uphill to meet my Czech Architecture class on our first excursion to Prague Castle. We were supposed to meet at the obelisk next to the cathedral at 1:30. I met up with 2 girls from the class, and we waited.

And waited.

And waited.

At 2, we looped the cathedral. Nobody from our class was in sight.

At 2:15, one of the girls went to the gardens to see if maybe there was a misunderstanding with the obelisk we were supposed to be at. Nobody. She went to the basilica, one of the sites listed on our syllabus. Nobody.

We called the NYU Center and the number listed on the syllabus. The class was definitely not cancelled and we got a voicemail.

Starbucks Guy texted and then called me about going out tonight somewhere in the mist of all that. I was too frazzled and FUCKING FREEZING to even contemplate this evening, so I told him we'd have to pack tonight since we're leaving for the weekend and that we'd meet up next week sometime.

In all, we waited from 1:30 until 3 pm in the cold in front of the cathedral (with the logic that, it's a fucking castle -- there is one door in and one door out -- so if our class was even inside the cathedral, which we assumed they would be going into since the professor had said something about buying tickets, we should logically we able to see them when they exited, right? Apparently not). Nobody from our class was there. I have no idea what happened. But I do know that this is the second time I've spent a ridiculous amount of time and effort trying to see Prague Castle with the end result being absolutely nothing.

I wrote probably the most pissy email I've ever sent to a professor when I got back to my room -- complete with an attached photo of me and Jin pouting at the camera in front of the obelisk for proof of our freezing state.

To top it all off, on the way back to my dorm, the store that I wanted to buy a tote bag in was completely sold out of the style I wanted (I think Amanda and Lily got the last ones), I couldn't find anything travel-sized at DM (it's like the Czech Walgreens), and the water I got at the store tastes funny even though it's supposed to be still.

I think this is a sign that I should switch to the other section.
...Plus, that would give me no classes on Wednesday!

i'm still not in school mode

So remember when I said I didn't have classes on Tuesdays?

Yeah, well, turns out I do. Of course I found out about this after the class had already met for the day. Apparently, NYU uses "R" to mean Thursday, so "TR" on the schedule actually means "Tuesday and Thursday" and not just "Thursday." That's not confusing at all.

At least I was productive with my time yesterday: I did laundry for the first time (talk about complicated), grocery shopped, applied to a fall internship, and ate endless amounts of cheese and crackers as the boys cooked pasta for us girls. At night, we went to M1, which actually played hip hop music, but it was kind of small and the dance floor was weirdly empty. It's funny that after coming here and getting away from the "Duke bubble," now everyone's talking about how it's so easy to get trapped into the "NYU bubble" while in Prague. I guess with any small group of people, where everyone's bound to be connected through three degrees of separation or less, social bubbles are inevitable.

Goal for the semester: make Czech friends!

Starbucks Guy actually emailed us back and wants to take us out this weekend, but we're leaving on a trip to Northern Bohemia on Friday. I'm really looking forward to it, although I'm starting to wonder if I'm ever going to have a weekend in Prague. I guess I'll just have to make up for it during the weekdays.

london calling

I JUST BOOKED TICKETS TO LONDON!

They were $220 total, including tax and fees. I'm going to go so broke this semester, but damn it, I will see the world.

On another note, I know this city is very ethnically homogenous, but I seriously feel like the only Chinese girl in all of Prague. Not only can I count the number of Asian people I've seen on one hand (which is so weird coming from a summer in Vietnam/Asia), but I'm pretty sure all of them are Vietnamese (apparently, there's a huge population here), which I suppose is weirdly appropriate.

As for today, Czech class was a total joke. Probably around 6 of the 20 people actually showed up to the "mandatory" class, and I really only did because I forgot to turn my alarm clock off last night (and because I had to meet this academic advising lady, since last night left me enrolled in only 2 classes -- which means I wasn't even a full-time student anymore -- after I completely failed at drunkenly trying to drop/add classes and coordinate schedules with my roommate at 4 am). I'm pretty sure every person doing NYU in Prague was at Mecca last night, which has no cover Wednesday nights and has a free Sex on the Beach for ladies until midnight. It was a cute club that's overall what you'd expect when you think of European clubs: flashing lights, smoky dancefloors, techno music, guys in tight shirts and gelled hair, girls in flashy outfits, and people awkwardly bopping around on the dance floor. And I finally tried absinthe for the first time!

let's spazz

As one of our suitemates said to me last night, "Cross Club will change your life."

Stepping off the metro, I first saw what I thought was the Czech version of a frat party until I realized that people were all coming out of a metal building that seemed to melt into the surrounding grounds. The place is about four levels, the bottom three screaming of metal, grunge, dreadlocks, techno, and smoke and the top one (the one where you bought your ticket and which I suspect was actually ground level) surprisingly classy with yellow walls, tables, and paintings. I was immediately in love with the place the minute the bouncer took my arm and stamped a white stamp on my wrist that only shows up under blacklight. After we took shots of absinthe and some "dark, Czech" rum, the rest of the night, I'll admit, is a blur of swirly metal lights, loud music, and the smell of weed. We met some guys from our dorm -- one of whom is apparently the grandson of some knight in England and hangs out at the gym in Beverly Hills with Penn Badgley from Gossip Girl.

...And Amanda, Lily, and I definitely woke up at 2 pm today.

In other news, I need to get out of the habit of immediately rating clubs on the Shooters scale the minute I step into them.

cheers to immersion

We made a Czech friend!

So after spending about three hours at a French restaurant having wine, cheese, and fondant chocolat (side note: I LOVE how they don't rush you at restaurants here at all. People not only eat later, which is taking me some getting used to, but they eat for a much longer time too, which I've discovered is also the best thing ever because I feel like I'm really enjoying my food and having a meal), we were giggling and squealing our way down Old Town Square, when we stopped to take a frappucino sample at Starbucks (aka my lifesaver for these past three days thanks to late nights and early Survival Czech class). The guy handing them out was really chill, so we ended up talking to him for a bit, and he asked us for our emails and if we'd ever like to go with him and some of his friends (he's 19 and goes to university in the city) out at night sometime.

Um, hello? Partying with the locals?
Sign me up!

Lesson learned: yeah, it's surprisingly quiet here (i.e. everyone gives us really weird looks wherever we are because people talk in super quiet voices and are really reserved, even in public places like restaurants and the metro), and yeah, people don't generally smile, but the Czech people really do seem to be a lot friendlier than we anticipated.

the food the wine the cheese the people

Can I just say?
I LOVE EUROPE!