Blogs from Czech Republic, Europe - page 234

Today was the official last day of classes. We went to a cafe to eat and just chill for a while. We learned that everyone would be getting A's. (A big joke on the trip is that we "bought our A's," that is, we spent all the money to go on the trip to get auntomatic A's). We said good-bye to our teacher Malvina. Marketa will be taking us to the airport on Tuesday morning. We bought both of them flowers as a goodbye present. After the cafe, we went shopping. I finally finished all of my souvenir shopping, which made me really happy. I was happy to realize this afternoon that all of my souvenirs fit in my other suitcase, not that space is going to be an issue, but weight will be. Maxine was ... read more

Today was our last "real" day of class. We have to go to class tomorrow but it is more an informal get together and discussion. We had two lectures today, one on the Roma (Gypsy) minority in the Czech Republic and one on Gender Issues. They were OK. We also had a visit to the National Museum in the afternoon. The Museum itself was a beautiful building, the stuff in it was not so great. They had all these animals and rocks and fossils, so it was not so interesting and not very Czech. We did get to see some diamonds, though, so that was cool. After the museum, Maxine, Sarah and I went to do a little more shopping. I was looking for three more things. I was able to find one, the hardest thing ... read more

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