Včera a Dnes

(Translation: Yesterday and Today)

*I finally uploaded my pictures from Brno.*

I can honestly say that yesterday and today have been my two favorite days in Prague so far. Yesterday my friend Karen and I left our dorm pretty early in the morning and wandered by foot around the city. We didn't have any real destination besides the fact that we just wanted to find a cafe to do our Czech homework. We ended up in the Mala Strana district. At one point we both turned a corner and gasped because we had such a gorgeous view of the whole city. We found a little cafe on a sidestreet and sat for a while doing homework. Then we walked some more, happened upon the Lennon wall, and then kept going across the Charles Bridge. We ended up stopping again for another coffee, and then we went to class. After class we had a meeting, so we got back to the dorm late, but after making some dinner a bunch of us met in the pub in the dorm and just hung out. All in all it was a great day.

A picture from our morning walk.

A little side story from yesterday: We met up with our friend Claire inbetween cafes, and she told us about her interesting morning. When sitting in a touristy cafe downtown a woman sat down next to her. The woman was carrying a jacket that she put down next to Claire. Claire saw the woman reach down and it looked like she was touching her foot, but really the woman had put her hand in Claire's purse and was trying to hide it with the jacket! Claire slapped her arm and yelled and the woman jumped up and ran away without getting anything, but it was definitely a close call.

Today was a great day as well. Karen and I took the metro downtown and wandered around until we found a cafe we liked. We sat outside and did some more Czech homework. The language is VERY HARD, but it's actually kind of fun to learn. It's just difficult since we're learning it so quickly there are a million words being thrown at us at once. Anyway, after the cafe we met up with our friend JC and went to the Communism Museum. The Communism Museum gave a history of the Czech Republic under communism, and I found it really interesting. I'm lucky that the people I went with found it interesting as well, because it was not much of an interactive museum, and to get anything out of it you really had to read each exhibit. They had a lot of displays of random things (such as food, furniture, school books, military equipment, etc.), but my favorite part was all of the propaganda posters and the mock interrogation room. After the museum we grabbed a quick lunch at the school cafeteria that our teacher showed us (where coffee is < $1, THANK GOD), and then we went to class. After class I went to the opera at the National Theatre here in Prague. We saw Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro. I was a bit unsure about how much I was going to like the opera, but I actually really enjoyed it. The music was great and the atmosphere was interesting. The conductor looked just like someone from Target though, so that kind of creeped me out.

Julia, Alex, Karen, Claire, and me before the opera.

All in all the last two days are amazing. There is so much to do here, and even doing homework is okay when you're doing it in such a great place with such great views all around you!

By the way, I asked my teacher today the exact way to say "Happy Birthday" in Czech, and she told me, so Všechno nejlepši, Mom!