Second Day of Class

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Classes again today. We started out with Dr. Boučkova and economics. It was actually a lot more interesting than I originally thought it would be. I took more notes during her lecture than I did for all of yesterday’s combined. After economics, we had Peroutková and Czech language again. We learned some phrases and basic questions. It was fun. I really like Czech, even if it has some of the hardest words I’ve ever tried to pronounce. Following Czech was Voráček with Czech People and Land. He’s a very interesting lecturer. He’s pretty animated, so everything kind of comes alive. Today he talked about the communist occupation of the Czech Republic and the former Czechoslovak nation. He was ranting about the communists, which was amusing. Then he told us about some defining characteristics of the Czech people, which included hard work, good hands, and the propensity to cheat, which he attributed to their years of oppression by communism, where if you didn’t cheat the government, you were depriving your family.

After class we had a few activities organized by the Czech students. Our options included going to a mall or going to The Pub, where you can apparently tap your own beer (yay?). I wasn’t particularly enthused by either prospect, but decided to go to the mall just to get myself out of the dormitory. The mall we went to is called the Palladium, and it’s connected to one of the metro stations (a lot like one of the malls I saw in London). It was a lot bigger than any mall I’m used to, with something like four floors (at least). There were some interesting things there. I was surprised to see Wranglers and Levi’s stores, and one of the cafes had some interesting décor…in the form of horses with lampshades over their ears. We also went into a pet store to kill some time and found a chipmunk in a display beside the hamsters and mice. Yes, a chipmunk. I didn’t have my camera, but Rebecca took pictures of it.

There isn’t much going on right now. The weather’s been pretty nasty the past few days. Cold and rainy, which the Czechs have all been telling us is unusual. It’s been raining all day today, and I’d hazard a guess that it’s about 50, maybe cooler. Given the weather, I haven’t felt like doing much besides taking a warm bath (which I can’t do since I have no bathtub) and curling up in bed.

This probably won’t get posted until tomorrow (Wednesday) or later because the wireless is nowhere to be found today. It may be delayed past Wednesday due to our trip to South Bohemia. In that case, I apologize. As another update on the toilet: still not working. Dr. Johnson talked to Honsa about it again today, and he said he had told the maintenance people about it, but nothing’s happened yet and it’s…nine in the evening. Oh well, I guess we’ll just have to live with it for a bit longer and keep relying on public bathrooms. Joy.

Sorry for the short post and lack of pictures today. It’s been cold and rainy and depressing, so there’s not much for me to post. Going to South Bohemia tomorrow, which should take us about two to three hours to get to. Hopefully I’ll have more to report then!

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