Libraries, Opera, and Salmonella

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Today a bunch of us met up at 10 am to get a Charles University student ID card. With help from CET, it was a relatively easy process. Then we went to the little-known Jewish library of Josefov. The lady at the entrance was a little bit crazy and seemed overwhelmed by a group of six students. We weren’t making any noise, but she kept telling us to be quiet because it was a “study day.” After a ridiculous process of signing in and getting past two sets of secure doors, we entered the tiny library where we saw only one person studying. Otherwise, it was deserted.

Then this evening we went to see an opera (Rusalka) by Dvorak at the National Theatre. It was apparently one of his most famous operas. The opera had three acts and two 20-minute intermissions between acts. They had an English translation full of words like “mendacious” on a screen above the stage. The story was slightly reminiscent of the little mermaid. It was relatively interesting. I might go to an opera again, especially since it’s so cheap here, but I definitely prefer regular musical theatre to the opera. What can I say? I’m a sucker for catchy show tunes.

In other news, my roommate Jessica has salmonella poisoning from meat she had in Italy, and I’m now officially addicted to yogurt. I’m eating several yogurts a day here. I blame Deena; she got me started on this yogurt kick. I’m also starting to think about my big papers. I think I might want to do one on Jewish asceticism (which I probably wouldn’t have found that interesting of a topic before taking that class on the New Testament Apocrypha, but things change). It’s difficult to be a serious student here because there’s just no place to study. The apartment is never quiet, and there are no real libraries where people can go to study… especially not ones to which foreigners like myself have access. So, I’m having a little bit of trouble getting my work done. I didn’t get to study as much as I would have liked for our last Czech quiz and consequently didn’t do all that well this time around. I like languages, but Czech is just annoying. Even so, I need to figure out a way to get my friggin’ work done. I’ve been feeling somewhat overwhelmed trying to balance everything, especially trying to figure out weekend travel plans. I would like to visit Vienna to see Victor from BCI or Rome to see Jenny from Oxy, but I don’t really want to travel over the weekend because my Monday’s really, really suck. I NEED my Sunday’s to prepare for my seven and a half hours of back-to-back classes. And I need to get enough sleep on Sunday night so that I can stay awake through it all.

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