last real day of class

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today was pretty much our last day of class- tomorrow we'll just meet at a cafe to discuss all of our papers (i.e. the lectures we've heard over the past 2 weeks). so today we had 2 lectures, both of which i found really interesting because they dealt with current social issues, and a visit to the national museum, which i did not find so interesting.

the first lecture was on the roma minority, or what the group known to most american as the "gypsies" (that name is technically quite incorrect actually). i really had no knowledge of the hardships this group has faced in europe- or where they came from (northern india). they have actually been named as an official "nation" (they have their own language, flag, anthem, etc.) but no state. i.e.-- the speaker said her citizenship is czech, but her nationality is roma. this is a group that has faced a great deal of discrimination (half a million of them were killed during the holocaust) and still faces heavy discrimination today.

after a short break, we visited the gender studies center in prague (which i was pretty excited about) and listened to a lecture on women and their political participation. the lecture probably could have presented in a more interesting way (the girl wasn't that exciting to listen to) but it was really interesting. apparently some countries have percentage quotas of how many candidates running for office must be women. i was kind of surprised to hear that, but it made a lot of sense. i asked the girl how people react to this, and she said that a lot of people react negatively because they're concerned with just "having the best people in office." but in her opinion (which i completely agree with) it's important to have such a quota because more women here are college educated, women in office more accurately reflect the popluation, and because without such quotas women would have trouble breaking into the traditionally male dominated environment of politics. some food for thought...

we headed over to the national museum after finishing up at the gender studies center. while the building is incredibly beautiful and historic, the actual museum was pretty "dull" (and i'm quoting rick steves on that!) (it was like fossils, minerals, animals- that sort of thing) so katie and i just kind of walked thru it and had a chance to talk, just the two of us, which was nice.

now we're back at the dorms, just relaxing. i think we're going to a club tonight...so that should be an interesting experience. more tomorrow!

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