the promise of every cobbled alley

wanderlust, wanderlust

can you spot a pattern?

relentlessly restless

restless relentlessly

northern bohemia: i miss traveling

an ode to czech cuisine

All menus were filled with beer, meat, bread, butter, and cream
and to have low-fat or low-carb options was a distant dream
The grocery stores and cooking directions were entirely in Czech
which further constrained this already limited chef
to eating mainly musli, cereal, soup, pita, tomato, and cheese
and a bar of Orion horka horka chocolate to please
my taste buds that had become sick of carbs
pastries, bread, and potatoes had become as appetizing as lard
And after living on the top floor of my dorm with a slow elevator
and relying on every form of public transportation ever
I guess the surprise I just got was really quite nice
considering all semester I went to the gym only twice
At first I thought the numbers on my scale must be wrong
but yes, I lost more weight in Europe than I did in Vietnam.

guess who's back, back again

I'm in America.
Where I don't have to ask for "still," "neperliva," or "no gas" water.
Where public bathrooms are definitely free.
Where tap water is free.
Where bread is free in restaurants.
Where you tip more than 10%.
Where you can talk on the metro. Loudly, even.
Where coffee comes big and black.
Where the sun doesn't set at 4 pm.
Where cooking directions come in English.
Where Web sites default to English.
Hell, where everything is in English.

The time between coming back from Vietnam and flying to the Czech Republic was so short that I honestly feel like I haven't properly been in the States since May, and now I have about a week and a half at home before I drive down to campus Jan. 3. I feel like I've seen and experienced more in this year than I have the entire rest of my lifetime and part of me is ready to just collapse in one giant wheeeeew! while the other part of me is still itching to plan that next trip, that next weekend away. Now that I've spent a semester in Europe, I have an entirely new list of places that I want to see (Amsterdam, Berlin, Munich for Oktoberfest, Madrid, Barcelona, Croatia, Serbia, Greece, Istanbul, etc.), and it scares me to know that I don't have any big trips planned in the near future (...so far). It scares me even more to not know when I'll be in Prague again.

I honestly don't know if study abroad cured my wanderlust or made it worse. I am tired and I know that no matter how far I go some things I will never be able to escape from, but there is something freeing in the backpacking, hostel-hopping lifestyle--even if it means slumming it--and in knowing that you can just up and go any minute.

THE FINAL LIST OF WHERE I WENT:
12.09 - 13.09: Northern Bohemia, Czech Republic
18.09 - 21.09: Vienna, Austria
26.09 - 27.09: Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic
02.10 - 05.10: London, England
09.10 - 12.10: Krakow, Poland and Auschwitz
23.10 - 24.10: Bari, Italy
24.10 - 27.10: Rome, Italy and the Vatican
27.10 - 31.10: Florence, Italy and Pisa
31.10 - 03.11: Venice, Italy
07.11: Terezin, Czech Republic
13.11 - 17.11: Paris, France
23.11: Kutna Hora, Czech Republic
04.12 - 06.12: Budapest, Hungary

cash is the new plastic

Funny story:

So Casey and I stopped by the Namesti Miru Christmas market Sunday (i.e. last) night after coming back from a day trip to Kutna Hora. They are selling hot honey wine and Czech candied almonds. We indulge in both, congratulating ourselves on making good life decisions.

On our walk back to the dorm, I stop by the Bankomat (the European version of the ATM) to withdraw some cash. Buzzed, I insert in my card. I punch in my PIN number. An error message pops up telling me it's the wrong code. I concentrate harder and punch the PIN number in again. The same message pops up. The same message pops up three more times.

Then a new message pops up telling me that my card has been "detained" and to contact my bank for more information.

Confused and still buzzed, I go through the pouch I carry my cards in to see if there is a number I can call and realize that I've stupidly inserted in my credit card instead of my debit card. No wonder the PIN number wasn't working. I turn to the lady standing behind me waiting to get to the Bankomat to seek help. She speaks no English.

Finally, I figure out that I'm supposed to call the Euronet number listed on the Bankomat. The Czech guy on the phone tells me in a heavy accent that a technician service man (?) is going to come pick up my card, which will then be sent to my home bank. "IN AMERICA?!?!" I ask. In America, he says.

He assures me that my card is safe inside the machine, but that it will stay very much inside the machine, thanks to my bank tagging it for "security reasons." Couldn't they just ask me a couple questions to make sure that I'm me? I have awful images of hundreds of tagged and detained credit cards lumped together inside the metal stomach of this greedy Bankomat I now despise. I call my parents to have them cancel my credit card, just in case, and in the meantime realize that that was the first time I've heard my mother's voice since leaving the States in August.

And so here I am, once again abroad without a credit card.
I'm never drinking on a Sunday night ever again.

hot chocolate, prosim

The sun officially sets now around 4 pm every day and it's really ridiculously, mind-numbingly cold outside, but that's all become magically okay because...

IT'S SNOWING!

To celebrate the first snow of the year, Casey, Becca, and I watched "Love Actually" after our mandatory first-snow snowball fight. The Christmas market at Namesti Miru has opened up, the tree is being lighted in Old Town Square on the 29th, NYU has a student-organized, catered Thanksgiving feast planned for this coming Thursday that has a guest list of 170 people, and it's all beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

I love the holidays.

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!

i'm in love with a city

I'M IN PRAGUE.

Now, originally I was going to start My First Study Abroad Blog Post talking about the moment I fell in love with the city. Or, in other words, the moment my cab from the airport hit the top of a hill (after a few miles of nothing but normal-looking trees and flat road), and I saw the entire, fairy tale city spread out in front of me, the red roofs, the spires, and all. And I was in awe. There is no other word to describe it. The image of Cinderella's town at the very beginning of the movie comes to mind (the old-school version, where they used to show an overview of the "town" and then zoom in on a particular area as they began the narration), thanks to the dominance of the Prague Castle. I mentally played cheerleader to my taxi driver (...who did not speak English) by, given my generally decent sense of direction, I would think, "Please turn right, please turn right. ...YESSSS! Go left! Go left! ...SCORE!" in order to somehow -- through mental willpower -- make my dorm building end up in the center of the city.

But instead of all that, I'm going to focus on the moment I first really interacted with a Prague local.

So it turns out that not only is my dorm pretty near the center of town, but I'm also on the fifth (read: TOP) floor of my dorm, which means I have a great view, but that my thighs are going to get a killer workout in the upcoming four months. That also means that after unpacking, trying to figure out how to use the Internet/phone, laughing with the girl living across from me about how we both are now super inspired to visit Greece thanks to Mama Mia! and The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 (don't judge us), I was about to faint from hunger. Literally! So, since Lilly (the girl living across the hall) was taking a nap, I decided to venture out on my own (this is big, you guys) to find lunch.

My map was totally incomprehensible (it was all in Czech!), so I walked out, turned left and headed straight, as per some general directions a girl downstairs had told me to take to get to an area of cafes/restaurants. I walk down the adorable cobblestone alley and see this cute little shop with a sign that says "Sandwiches." It looked cute, so I open the door and am about to go inside when I hear a man's voice yelling Czech at me.

Oh no.

Well, after I worriedly go, "Sorry?" he informs me that the place is closed. Relieved that I wasn't breaking some previously unknown intrusion law and totally despaired over how I was going to find food, I ask if there was another place nearby where I could get a bite to eat, he asks me what I wanted, and when I say I just want a sandwich or something, anything, he goes, in the classic way that only a Central European can say it:

"...I could give you a sandwich."

I probably could've kissed him right then. So he unlocked the cafe, went down into the kitchen, and I waited outside by the road for my free lunch.

Well, turns out, there were no more pre-made sandwiches downstairs since it was the weekend, and the place apparently didn't get that much business. The feeling of doom comes over my entire body, until all of a sudden I hear Czech Guy go, "I can make you a sandwich. If you're not scared, you can come to the kitchen."

What? "Should I be scared?" I ask.

"Well, no. Well, you'll see."

And that's when I break the first rule of How Not To Get Screwed While In A Foreign Country; and I told him that it was my first day in the city. "In that case," he goes, "we're making you a sandwich."

I walk downstairs with him into the kitchen and survey that it's 1) pretty clean, with the ingredients all packed away, but also 2) that the ingredients did not have any labels on them to tell me what they were or when they expired. Czech Guy started poking at the bread to see if they were good or not, and when I asked about their status, he said he wasn't really sure since it was Bio Bread.

What the fuck is Bio Bread?

Well, he didn't know how to describe it in English, but basically he just said that it was "really healthy," so I figured it was probably organic or whole wheat or something like that. I poke at it to see what it feels like, and it's rock hard. I'm crushed, until I realize that: THIS IS PRAGUE! THIS IS ONLY THE FIRST RESTAURANT I'VE SEEN! I'll just go down the street to look for another cafe!

And thankfully, I found one with outdoor seating.

i hate feeling like all i'm doing is waiting

It's so strange being home right now, during the down time between Vietnam and Prague. I feel like all I'm doing is watching the clock tick until I'm on that plane Bohemia-bound and my life can start again. Granted, I should be packing, but that's a whole other issue to talk about (though really, all I have to say is a big fuck you to check-in luggage weight limits).

In the meantime, it makes me sad getting all the welcome-back emails from Duke administrators (...and sorority exec board members), having to RSVP "Not Attending" to all the random Facebook invites to welcome-back parties at all-too-familiar venues (venues whose names I can actually pronounce!), having to hear about Shooters stories over the phone instead of during the obligatory 3 am McDonald's run or the standard Sunday morning froyo binge, and knowing that everyone starts school again tomorrow. The Sanford Institute seems like a world away, and I can't believe that it'll be January before I return to that maze of a building. I can only hope Roger, the guy who works at the Sanford Deli, will still remember my name and the way I like my French Connection wrap.

In a weird way it's like I'm regressing back to the summer before freshman year, with all the same anxieties over how I'm going to do laundry, or try to cook (let's face it, knowing me, I'll probably just end up eating out every night and/or living off of cereal and granola bars), or who my roommate is going to be (though to some extent, I'm kind of glad we don't find out who our roommates are before we land in Prague because that saves me from awkward introductions over Facebook and phone calls spent trying to talk about sleeping/eating/studying/partying habits -- first impressions just really need to be made in person). At least this time I'll be in one of the greatest cities in the world instead of Durham, North Carolina (which, granted, definitely has its own unique charm, but it still just doesn't even come close).

guilty pleasure #25: i secretly love it when lyrics describe my current state of being

And all I do is talk, talk, talk all day
I'm laughing my life away
I'm staring at the sun again
Till everything's fading

It's like a swollen summer
What if I'm getting dumber?
What if I'm in denial?
What if they come and cop my style?

Downtown in the clear
All I know is nothing ever changes here
And I know there's no excuse and no defense
But my summertime never ends.

-- The Bravery, "Swollen Summer"

Since I really have nothing of meaning to say (because, let's face it, I've done absolutely nothing productive since I've come home for the summer and I intend to keep it that way until I leave for Viet Nam), I'll just put up pictures.

Here's the background for my desktop at the moment:


Which replaced this one:

The colors for some reason are messed up for my Andy Warhol one, but you get the general idea.

I'm always slightly curious about what people have as their desktop backgrounds, I guess because it says a lot about the owner's personality in the same way dorm room decorations tell a lot about a person. (Side note: It's weird to think that my best friends in college, when they leave campus for vacation, go home to places, houses, rooms that I've -- for the most part -- never seen. It's like seeing only the end result without knowing what shaped it. I love it when you learn about how somebody grew up or meet their family and it instantly clicks as to why they are who they are. But I guess, in general, I'm a pretty visual learner, so as much as I like hearing stories, it never really becomes fully "real" to me until I've seen pictures.)

Speaking of pictures, this will be me when I'm living in Prague: