The last couple of days we haven't had anything planned for us so we have been free to do whatever we want around the city. Yesterday morning we went to a student concert which was sort of like a dress rehearsal for the real concert and the tickets were really cheap. However, they talked about themusic a lot at the beginning and it was all in Czech, so we did not understand anything. Unfortunately the man speaking did not realize this and apparently asked a question and held out the microphone for me to respond (we were sitting in the front row). So I had to say I didn't speak Czech and then laugh and shrink down and hide in my seat. Luckily one of the perks of being short is being able to hide with ease. After the concert we walked around for a while and had coffee in a cafe. We made dinner in the dorm and then just went out and hung out at bar that was actually in a basement. It was really cool and looked like the Three Broomsticks. There were definitely some wizards and vampires there. I don't know how they coexist though so they might now have both been there.
This morning we talked with Jan Wiener, who is Zuzana's husband and lives in our suite. He told us about his life, what he did before the war and communism, how he got to America, what he did while he was there and when he came back to the Czech Republic. It was really interesting to hear about his life. On Monday all of the ECES students are watching the movie about his life so it was cool to talk to hime and find out more before seeing it.
This afternoon Colleen and I went to the National Gallery at the castle. The art was really good but not my favorite because a lot of it was really old, like 1600s and 1700s and of Biblical scenes. We went through the museum pretty quickly and then sat in the cafe and had coffee for a while.

Today I went to Cesky Sternberk and Kutna Hora, which are about and hour and a half outside of Prague. Sadly I forgot my camera so I will not be able to put up pictures until other people do and I can take them. Cesky Sternberk is a castle that is centuries old. It was beautiful and what is very interesting is that it is still owned by the family who lived in it over 800 years ago. It was taken from them in the 1950s but a member of the family was allowed to stay on as a tour guide and it was given back after the Velvet Revolution. The man who now owns it lives on the first floor but his whole family actually lived in the castle when he was a child and his bedroom was on display, the floors were over 400 years old. Since the castle is so old different rooms are decorated with all different styles of art and architecture that were popular over several centuries. After this castle we went to the town of Kutna Hora. This town used to be a silver mining town and was very prosperous but does not seem to be as well off and is very different than Prague. It seemed kind of dreary. We walked around the town which was very pretty and had architecture in Gothic and Baroque styles. There is also a cathedral and monastery there that are beautiful. The cathedral is huge and gorgeous and had stained glass all around it. At the end of the day we went to this bone church. It has all the bones of 40000 plague victims on display. Around the building there are pyramids of stacked bones and skulls in the front. Different bones arranged in patterns decorated the walls. In the middle there was a chandelier made from all the bones in the human body. It was really interesting and the decorating could actuallyy be considered interesting in a morbid way.
Tonight we are going out in Prague. I think we are going to a club, which should be fun. I am a great dancer so I can show off my skillz. For the next four days we do not have anything planned for us so we will just be exploring and getting to know the city more.

Here is my first photo album. The pictures until DSC 01117 are of Prague and the rest are in Cesky Krumlov.
http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=257468922/a=159932039_159932039/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink

More on my resourcefulness...I have stacked three suitcases on top of each other to form a chair.

Today I went to the Czech town of Cesky Krumlov. It takes a few hours to get there, but we thought that the ride wouldn't be bad because we would get to view the Czech countryside. The drive wasn't too bad, I actually fell asleep on the way there and the way back. However, the view looked like some of the drive from my house to NH, with some trees but minus the view off 89. Another part of the drive was huge open fields and what looked like giant farms but we only saw a few animals. Randomly in the middle of the fields there were housing developments with nothing else around them. I think this is a town like Godric's Hollow, since it is separated from everything. Once we got to the town we looked at a huge castle which was actually closed for tours but we were able to walk around and see the outside. Then we walked around the town and had lunch in a cafe. The town was really pretty but many things were closed since its not really tourist season. After lunch we went to two museums, one was a photographers studio and was really interesting because there were many pictures that were taken before communism and then restored after. The second museum was supposed to be about architecture but was more of a lecture about it. It was pretty boring. After the museum we had some more time to walk around and then Joanna and I were cold so we sat in a cafe. We then got on the bus to come back and everyone fell asleep. Tonight we decided to just stay in the dorm and hang out since were all so tired. Tomorrow I am going to Kutna Hora.

For any Conistonians: The first song I heard here was Eye of the Tiger.

Yesterday we did a tour around Prague with our house mother Zuzana. She is a very nice and interesting person and it was cool to see Prague from the view of someone who has lived here both many years ago and today. We got to go to the castle and see many sights such as monasteries, churches and beautiful buildings. After our tour we went to Andel, which is a shopping center and were able to get Czech cell phones. It was only about $45 for the phone and the minutes! We also got hot wine at the National Gallery which is a very popular drink here and is sold everywhere. Then later we went to dinner and hung out at a pub. The food here is pretty cheap, dinner was only around $7.
Today we went to an orientation for all of the students in the Eastern and Central European Studies program. It was held in a beautiful old church. After the orientation we walked around Prague for a while, had lunch at a little cafe, got our student IDs and went to Tesco (Czech Walmart). The towels here are ridiculously small so we wanted to get some decently sized ones so as not to risk indecent exposure every time we want to shower. I also got a pillow since the ones here are almost completely flat. We were very proud that we were able to find our way to Tesco and back because the streets in Prague go every which way and change names frequently. I was obviously very helpful in figuring out the directions.
A few interesting things happened to me today. One, I sat down in my chair and it immediately broke and fell to the ground. This was quite the self esteem boost. Two, we have been trying a little to say some words in Czech at stores and to people around us. In one of the shops we were in the shopkeeper told us not to even try to speak Czech because it was too difficult to wait for us to just mess it up and then start speaking English. This was after pretending that he didn't understand what we were saying in English just to give us a difficult time. Lastly I was resourceful and used my swiss army knife to cut my orange when I couldn't peel it.