Blogs from Czech Republic, Europe - page 235

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 ... read more

today instead of having lectures, malvina and marketa decided to take us a typical bohemian town in the czech republic, kutna hora. it's a small town, but quite adorable and very historic. the architechture spans various time periods (baroque, gothic, etc.)- and it actually originally was founded as a silver mining town. we had about a one hour bus ride, and got there at around noon. so we walked around for a little bit just checking out the town- and then we were hungry around 1:30 so we went for lunch. marketa made the mistake of mentioning a mexican restaurant- so of course we went there for lunch lol. it was a very interesting experience- we referred to our food as "czech-mex"--like, dionne and i shared veggie fajitas-- which looked like stew veggies in a pan. ... read more

One week from now we will be in the air to go back to the States. I can't believe this trip has gone by so fast. Today we had a record-setting three lectures in class. Two were about the Czech media, which was pretty interesting. In the afternoon, we went to the Museum of Communism, something I had been looking forward to since we arrived in Prague. They have the coolest ads: traditional Russian toys and knick knacks looking all evil and communist. Anyway, the museum was very interesting, but unfortunately it required a lot of reading and it was pretty busy, so we moved around very slowly. For dinner tonight we caved in to our cravings for Mexican food. We went to Buffalo Bill's, a Tex-Mex/American West themed restaurant in New Town. The restaurant was ... read more

Today was another typical day of class. We had a rather boring lecture in the morning about civil society (whatever that is...) and a guest lecture in the afternoon about marketing and consumers in the Czech Republic. The second lecture was especially interesting to me. In between lectures we went shopping. I did a little more souvenier shopping and some of the other girls bought clothes. We hung out this afternoon and took naps. Dinner was KFC on the go (my first American fast food here). I swear there are more KFCs here than in the US. After dinner we watched Mean Girls in the room, which was good times. Tomorrow will begin our last full week in the Czech Republic. In some ways, it seems like we just got here, but in other ways it ... read more

today wasn't the fullest day- we had a malvina lecture in the morning (so it wasn't the most exciting...), then about an hour and a half break in which we went to H&M (i bought a cute purple/brown striped tank for $7!) and got some lunch. then we went back to school for a guest lecture. it was actually pretty interesting-- he was from this research company, and actually tailored his presentation a little bit for us since we're advertising students (well not me, but you know...) so he talked about brands, brand loyalties, etc.-- then he tied it into the CR and talked with us about reasons why czechs are less brand loyal than other western nations. after the lecture we went to tesco (this crazy awesome grocery/department store) for a bit, and then came ... read more