two days of crazy sights

So, yesterday and today i went on program sponsored trips around the czech republic. Yesterday morning, we started off at Vojna. Vojna was a forced labor camp run under soviet communist control. Vojna was a uranium ore mine used to obtain parts necessary for the soviet atomic bomb. it was closed in 1960. It is one of many but, since most forced labor camps were closed in 1960, it is one of few that havent been destroyed. while the nazis had a few days or a week to destroy their concentration camps, the communists had over 20 years.

from www.cestovatel.cz

im going to use pictures from the internet again as it takes a lot of time to upload the pictures then upload them online and everything, but maybe i'll have one post of highlights later. Also, it was raining horribly all morning and most of the afternoon so the pictures i did get aren't superb.

Next we took the 1/2 mile pilgrimage path to the Holy Mountain (Svata Hora) in Pribam. It was... amazing, breathtaking.... i've never seen anything like it. It is the holiest sight in the Czech Republic and dates back to the Baroque period.

from www.vitejte.cz

from www.brdy.info


I think i'm definitely going to have to contribute some of my own pictures of Svata Hora soon. These pictures dont do it justice, and i fear mine dont either, but i have more pictures from other areas around the building. Inside is the most beautiful church i have ever seen. ever. ever. i cant find pictures on the internet but some of my friends took some so i will get those up here so you can see.

Third, we went to the noble castle of the Schwarzenberg family Orlik. The castle is situated on the vlatava and is very beautiful. The decorations are a bit... busy, though. the wallpaper was the same as the window treatments and the floors and the ceilings and the chair coverings... it became a bit of a headache.

from ec.europa.eu

I cant find any pictures of the interior but, man, those Schwarsenbergs were into hunting!! there were deer and boar "trophies" all over the place. they used to keep count of how many animals they had shot with each gun by adding tiny metal dots to the bottom of the gun (i dont know what it is called?!).

This morning we left for the city of Ceske Budejovice or, perhaps more interestingly, The Budweiser Budvar brewery. The production of beer started in this town in 1265 ( i think this was earlier than the american company...) and was named "Budweiser" to denote its difference from other beers brewed in the area. The actual tour seemed very guest oriented... complete with enclosed stairs and fake plants. it was much less industrial than the microbreweries i've visited in the states and i think its because it is such a huge brewery that it has to accommodate a lot of tourists. the beer was really good, though.

After Budvar, we headed to the Hluboka Castle which i enjoyed even more than the Orlik Castle (go figure, the Schwarsenbergs lived here at one point too).

from cipherweb.open.ac.uk

Unfortunately, we weren't able to take pictures inside by my oh my it was very grand.

There is a magic mirror in the castle, as our guide said there is in every castle. This castle's magic mirror only works on men... if a man looks into it then in 1 year and 1 day either his wife will leave him, his mistress will leave him, or both. (haha!)

Now I am back at the dorm... Jake and Jordan have a friend in town- maybe from Northeastern? I think they want to go check out some Jazz tonight and I think I may accompany them.... hmm...

Alright, hope you are all doing well!!

-va

I'm very excited about things, as usual.

For the past few days, the czech army marching band has been practicing across the street from the Kolej where I live. It makes me really excited in the mornings- even if I just spend a better part of an hour laying in bed and listening. I think they are preparing for St. Wenceslas day, which is this Friday. I believe it is a national holiday. Oh- here it is...St. Wenceslas is the patron saint of the Czech Republic... very cool. I won't be in Prague on Friday, though. I am going on a free trip offered through my program. Actually, this weekend will be spent mostly on trips through my program... On Friday I am going on this trip:

The trip will explore three main sites in Příbram region: Vojna: Reconstruction of an infamous former communist forced labour camp located next to a uranium ore mine where the prisoners worked. Holly Mountain: The most important pilgrimage site in Bohemia, a masterpiece of Baroque architecture. Holly Mountain will be reached via half-a-mile staircase that the pilgrims have used. Castle Orlík: Private castle of Schwarzenberg noble family is a magnificent fortress looming over Vltava river dam “Orlická přehrada”. The interiors preserve the decorations and furniture from Napoleon’s era (owner of the castle Karl Schwarzenberg defeated Napoleon at Leipzig).

On Saturday I am going to the Hluboká Castle, City of České Budějovice, and the Budweiser Brewery.

I am so excited!! I haven't been to a brewery here yet. I've heard the Pilsner brewery is a bit ridiculous- with history blurbs such as, "and then World War II started.... BUT, we kept brewing beer!!!!!!!"

I'm going to miss czech beer.

Anyhow, I am sort of sad about possibly missing the marching band in full effect but I'm also glad I've gotten a private performance!

Last night I went with a group of students to see one of my teachers perform... so cool!! She does experimental stuff - singing but also poems over songs that she's written. it was very inspiring. Laying in bed listening to the czech army band has had a world of video footage running through my mind. I'm very excited about things, as usual.

interesting shopping experience part 28

So, I never am quite sure what I'm going to be putting into my fridge after a grocery shopping excursion. Today, i was sure i purchased lunch meat. It came in a package with pictures of meat all over it. But no, I was mistaken. The Czechs (or perhaps all of eastern europe- or even all of europe for that matter) are really into meat flavored cheese. It's almost like the concept of ham AND cheese was lost in translation. Or maybe they were like, "man, making ham and cheese sure takes up a lot of time- let's combine them!!!!!!!!" Because they do like their sandwiches.


...but taste test confirms that it actually isn't all that bad...

Forum 2000

I am so excited!! Every year, Prague hosts "Forum 2000" which is a number of conferences initiating a global conversation about how to move forward together. From the website:::

Mission
The Forum 2000 Foundation aims to identify the key issues facing civilization and to explore ways in which to prevent escalation of conflicts that have religion, culture or ethnicity as their primary components. We aim to provide a platform to discuss these important topics openly and to enhance global dialogue. Through our activities, we also intend to promote democracy in non-democratic countries and to support the civil society, respect for human rights and religious, cultural and ethnic tolerance in young democracies.



This year the focus is on freedom and responsibility and it is happening from October 7-9.... and I'm going!! I just registered for the conference about Freedom and Responsiblity in Media.... right up my alley. This is going to be SO NEAT!!

Here is the info about the conference::

Freedom and Responsibility in Media
This conference panel will address issues surrounding the media. What do we mean when we say that the media must be free, pluralistic and independent, and at the same time socially responsible? We know that free and independent media cannot thrive in undemocratic countries, but do not attempts to control and interfere with the media occur in democracies as well? Are not, in reality, even public service broadcastings frequently subject to political and economic pressures and to influences ensuing from increasing competition with commercial broadcasting? Are self-regulatory mechanisms in the media allowed for and encouraged, and if so, how in practice are they carried out and guaranteed? What, indeed, is the state of the press and the media in the world today? Is it true that they do not enjoy the same trust as they did in the past? If so, then why? And what could be done to improve the general situation, and by whom and how should such reform, if needed, be performed?



I'm sure I'll post much more on this subject!

and the excitement continues....

There is so much to report! Last Friday marked the last day of the Czech Intensive course... phew! I learned a lot but 5 hours a day, 5 days a week is a bit intense for sure! After class, Olivia, Gina and I bought some juice boxes of wine and Olivia made breaded chicken. By the way, all that we have to cook with here are two hot plates- making any kind of exciting dish almost completely out of the question. I miss having an oven, but experimenting with the hot plates has been fun as well. After we ate up, we grabbed our bags and ran (literally, we were a little late) to the train station. We bought a group pass to Ostrava and then ran to the train. Ostrava is a town about 4 hours north-east of Prague, by the Polish border. It is known for its "kicking night life" so we thought it'd be a good way to wind down after two weeks of being high strung. If the picture above works, that is one that Gina took of me on the train. I havent uploaded mine yet and on top of that i've been having a bit of trouble getting them on the internet in the first place but i'll try to work on that soon and get some more up for your viewing pleasure.

Ostrava was fun and all, but I had a lot more fun on the train. The train was packed so we had to sit in the hallway with a bunch of other people. This gave us the opportunity to not only practice our Czech, "Pardon.. mluvite anglicky? ne? okay... kde to pivo?", but also to meet some English speaking Czechs who were eager to tell us about their country. Most notable would be 3 boys coming home from a concert and a man who didnt speak English but spoke French.

Ostrava itself was exactly as it had been described, there was one street just filled with bars and night clubs. I didn't find it all that exciting and as a result became a little homesick. I jumped on the next train back to Prague and was in my (slightly uncomfortable, but very welcoming) bed by 10am on Saturday.

Oh! I forgot to mention the TV tower. There is this HUGE, space craft looking tower poking out of the skyline on the other side of the city. If I understand correctly, it was built by the communists. It seems to pierce the sky, it is so large. Here are some pictures, borrowed from the internet:






After '89, a contemporary artist fashioned black babies that now "crawl" all over the tower, celebrating the rebirth of the nation. Here are some close-ups:




I walked to the tower with Olivia and Mikey and we went up the the 8th floor (the highest floor you can go to). The view was MAGNIFICENT. You could see all of Prague. Also, they had maps of the area pointing out the important buildings and what they were and why they were important. Very cool.


Classes started yesterday and so far they are going well. I've decided to continue on with the Czech language throughout the semester so hopefully I'll have a working knowledge of the language when I return and I can annoy you all with it ;). I also had my Alternative Czech Cultures class yesterday and I am SO excited about it. The teacher seems really great and the class in general very interesting. she grew up during the communist era and was part of the punk scene so she has a different view of what it was like trying to rebel under such controlling times. I think I'll get a lot from this class. Today I have my class titled Bohemian Literature: From Kafka to Kundera, and on Thursday I will have Gender and Post-Socialist Transformation.

yesterday, Olivia and I found a store that sells only locally hand-made garments. I didnt buy anything yet because I wanted EVERYTHING!!! I hope to go back and support the local arts soon, though... Also, we stopped for a beer afterwards and ended up talking to a guy from Scotland! He said, "WAIT, you speak czech AND you have a map?" Which was all very flattering, of course. Anyhow, he showed us where his favorite places in the city were on the map and so now we've got some more adventuring to do!


Hope everyone stateside is doing well!! I love and miss you all very much!!


-virginia

Quick update before adventuring

So much happens here every week/day/hour that it is impossible for me to keep up with all of the amazing things I have experienced since I arrived. On Sunday, I went with a group of people to the bone church which is about an hour outside of prague by train. it was AMAZING. With nmy student ID it cost 20Kc to enter (about one dollar). The church is centuries old and it is decorated with human bones dug up from a grave nearby. I have already found so many things in this city that were beyond my wildest dreams.



http://flickr.com/photos/msonus/1351499823/

if this picture loads correctly, it is one of the chandeliers in the bone church.



http://flickr.com/photos/msonus/1352394248/

Here is Olivia in front of these temple-looking structures made ut of bones.



Since we were travelling with someone named Barbara, we obviously had to go visit the St. Barborosa Cathedral. It was so beautiful. The stained glasss was like nothing I'd ever seen before... Chad told me a few days later that this was because the glass was painted instead of stained... very cool!!



http://flickr.com/photos/msonus/1351533017/


okay! I hope you enjoy these photos! I put the web link underneath in case they don\t load correctly. I will try to update more soon!


Ahoj!

Dobry Den!!!

I have so much to write... It feels weird writing in English because even though I speak English with the other students, I have been writing only in Czech for the past three days so now it feels weird to put sentences together. Anyways...I will start with the adventure at Tesco (supermarket). So, there is a large store called Tesco which is a lot like Target or WalMart. It has just about anything you could ever need all divided on 6 floors. The floors are numbered -1 to 4. -1 is the basement where the grocery is, 0. is the first floor which has shampoo, soap, school supplies, 1. and 2. have clothes, 3. is fabric and toys and 4. is electronics. The first time I went to Tesco I couldn't find the grocery, haha! Someone told me where is was so I finally got some grocery shopping done (although eating out every meal isn't really all that expensive here- I got an entire pizza for 100 Kc which is about $4, or a half liter of beer for 20 Kc or $1- it just isnt healthy). At the grocery they sell 10 .5L beers for 100Kc- what a great investment!! I got beer and bread (turned out to be rye), some meat which I think is turkey? and some that I now think is Ham... oi! Anyways, so I also got some brocolli and rice and pasta but I couldnt find pasta sauce anywhere!! I have checked three markets and have not been able to find it. I did find Tomato paste, though, so I suppose I will just make my own - super chunky of course! So I am finally ready to check out and when it is my turn I find out vwery quickly that the cashier has no intention of even trying to speak English to me - it seems that no one in Tesco will. She cards me for the beer, though, which flustered me because the drinking age is much below 21 here so it didnt make any sense plus I couldnt find the page in my passport with the visa (that has all the info written in Czech) so I had to show her the regular picture part (and my picture is very horrible). Next, you bag all of your own groceries - this part wasnt a problem, though. So i decided to pay with my credit card since I had not used it yet and I have to find the Deutche Bank to withdraw money from so Bank of America doesnt charge me $5 for each transaction. On the back of all of my cards I have written "SEE ID." So there won't be as many problems getting my money back if the card is stolen. However, because of this, the woman would not accept my signature on the credit card slip!! I was so confused because she kept saying "Ne, ne, ne" - i tried to show her my signature on my passport and still "ne, ne, ne" and then some words I could not understand. Finally, I understood that she meant I needed to write "SEE ID" on the slip instead of my signature. Very strange, but at least i got my groceries. When I finally said "Dekuji" and walked away I was shaking a little bit. Sometimes it is hard to be brave in a place where you don't speak the language.

I dont think I need to explain other things in such detail or else no one will read it, haha! My roommate is very nice, she is from New Jersey and goes to George Washington University and her name is Abby. She is in my Czech Intensive course and is much better at it than I am. I think my problem is that there is so much to explore that I am still in vacation mode - but I'm starting to snap out of it. The other girl in my suite has been in Prague for three years - she is a medical student from Botswana. I have only spoken to her once, and I don't know her name. Oops!

The beds are very hard. They are like benches with sheets on them. Thus, it usually takes me a while to fall asleep. There are a lot of cool people in the dorm. I've been hanging out with people from all over the country (and world!). There is a boy from Finland named Thomas. He likes bell bottomed pants, black trench coats and David Bowie. He is very, very shy and is embarassed about his English although it is very good. Also, there is a girl named Olivia from Mexico. She is very cool and I hope to hang out with her more. I just met her yesterday and she came out to dinner with two other friends - Mikey and Joey. She is funny. Mikey is from New Orleans and studies Southern Literature. I met him at the airport with his roomate Tyler and we've become friends. Tyler is from Queens and loves Jazz and obsure films. He's also been a big mack recently as everytime I see him he's chatting up a new girl - haha!! There are two girls from my Czech class that I've spent most of the past two days with: Mercy and Gina. Mercy is originally from Ghana. She said she came to Prague because it is the cheapest place in Europe so I don't think she's enjoying it very much. Gina is from New York and speaks fluent Russian which, apparently, isn't as similar to Czech as I had assumed.

What else... it is very chilly already, unfortunately. However, yesterday Mercy, Gina and I found the European equivalent to H&M: Clockshop. They have boots and sweatshirts for very reasonable prices. I think I will go back there this weekend. I cant wait to sleep in!! It takes about 25 minutes to get to school from the dorm and class has started at 8 30 the past 2 days!!

I miss you all very much, and I hope that as I continue to blog I will figure out how to make the stories short and sweet. Also, I will try to get pictures up... I think I need to ask my roommate if it is okay if I load them on her computer and then put them on my zip disk and take them off the computer because I haven't seen any places on the computers at school to plug in the USB drive. We'll see...


if you want to write, the address is:

Virginia Ivey, 209C
Kolej KOMENSKEHO
Parlerova 6, 169 00 Praha 6
CZECH REPUBLIC



ahoj!
xoxoxo!

Hello from Prague!

So... just had a bit of trouble figuring out how to update my blog. BlogSpot can tell i am in the Czech Republic and so the web browser is all in czech. I had to guess but I got here so that is the good part. Everything is going so well today, although i had my first frustrating experience: checking out at the supermarket. We started the Czech intensive course today so i can say things such as "excuse me," "thank you," or "please" but I was not prepared for the check out experience. I suppose I will give details of this event later as I am supposed to meet some girls downstairs in a few minutes to buy used cell phones so it is easier to communicate both within the group but also with friends and family.


Ahoj!!