This week...

On Monday I had my usual full day of classes but it was special because I got my scavenger hunt back, and I got one of the best grades in the class. It was a lot of work but it was interesting and I learned about some thing I would not have otherwise. I was looking around my classes and I realized I am going to miss having class in the palace, Tulane just seems pedestrian in comparison.

The next day I was done with class at two, so I checked out the Mucha Museum which is a two minute walk from school. I was aware of his posters in Paris and the different series and but I was not familiar with his Slovak Epoch. His dedication to telling the story of his countrymen is admirable. As well, I did not know how influential he was in Czechoslovakia. After the first war, he returned and basically designed everything from money to stamps to medals for the new nation. It is a really nice, small museum. On Wednesday I had my living history class, and we continued looking at Old Town, this time focusing on the Jewish Quarter.

I didn’t travel anywhere this weekend so I checked out services at a synagogue a couple blocks away from my synagogue. It’s always interesting trying to find things in Prague. They all have two address numbers and synagogues that aren’t in historic buildings just blend in with the apartment. Services were held in the basement, for me and eight other people, all Czechs. It was reminded me a lot of the underground synagogue in Terezin. The service was in Czech but because the man leading services (I don’t think he was a Rabbi) knew I spoke English he said the page numbers in English. Although I had some short conversations with some of the people in Czech though there was not much I could communicate beside where I am from and that I am a student at CU. All of the people were really sweet, its funny, though, a few of them asked me if I was English. Maybe its as hard for them to tell English accents apart as it is for me to differentiate Czech, Slovak and Russian.

Over the weekend I did some school work, and on Monday we didn’t have class because it was a holiday. I went with my roommate Laura to support her while she got a tattoo. It was really interesting to watch. It looked like it hurt but she was really brave and it turned out really well. That night one of my professors, for my Holocaust class, so instead he had us all come to a restaurant called Casa Blue because class was cancelled. Before I went to my friend Mirka’s apartment; she’s a Finnish student doing a semester in Prague. I always forget I’m supposed to take my shoes off when I go into a European person’s home. It was nice to get a chance to speak to the other Czech students outside of class. One was really interested in Judaism and asked me how my family celebrated Shabbat. One of the boys in the class asked why so many Czechs are so cold towards Americans, and the Czech girl’s answer was interesting. She countered that Czechs are not reserved, Americans are just fake. She explained that there is a strong line between people you know and associate with and who your friend is and you act accord. While Americans are kind and friendly it does not really mean they want to be your friend, which we may see as courteous but Czechs see as disingenuous.

This Wednesday in Living History we walked around and saw all of the modern buildings in Prague. Most of them were from the 70’s and really ugly except for the Dancing House.
Yesterday, I went to Kutna Hora, a small historical town an hour outside of Prague. The first thing we saw was a church that is decorated with human bones. I can’t really say how or why though, because our tour guide didn’t really speak English. Then we took a short walking tour which was awful because it was so cold and rainy, but the exciting part was it snowed for a few minutes! Then we toured an old silver mine. We had to wear white jackets and helmets and use flashlights. Some parts of it were really scary because the spaces got very tight and the walls looked all slimy. It was really cool, though, I’m glad we went even though the weather was really bad.

This morning I woke and it was snowing outside! I was so excited that I stepped out on to my balcony in just my pajamas to get a better look. The city looks amazing all covered in white.

A couple of my friends from Tulane are coming to visit this weekend and I am very excited to show them around Prague.

Gutentag, Berlin

Friday
We took the train to Berlin at 6 AM. I was with all of my roommates and two more friends. It was a little early for my taste but the train was pretty comfortable. Its six people to a small car, sort of like in Harry Potter. After five hours we were in Berlin, but the real challenge was finding our hostel. Most people are surprised to find out that Berlin is bigger then Paris so the metro system is huge, it is above and below ground too. There are also a lot of homeless people yelling on it. After a lot of walking and metro transferring, we got to our hostel and were lucky to find that it was really nice and the people who worked there were really friendly. We were all really hungry so they directed us to an area with good restaurants and we found a small place ad everything was in German but they had a buffet, which is pretty rare in Europe but it was very good and inexpensive. Berlin was not as expensive as I thought it was going to be which was a nice surprise. It is not as cheap as Praha, but it is not as bad as Vienna. Then we went to Berlin’s new National Gallery which had a Jeff Koons exhibit, made of large scale objects that looked like they were made of balloons. It was very fun and whimsical. There was also a large Paul Klee exhibit which was interesting; I had never seen so much of his work before and how diverse it was. Some of the skeletons in his later work were very Tim Burtonesque. Afterwards we went back to the hostel and then it was time for dinner, we went to Café V, a vegetarian restaurant that was suggested in one of our guide books. It is in a very cool old building. I had a dish with spatchel (thick German pasta) and a raspberry beer that is a famous German specialty. It was good, but too sweet to have more then one glass. We were all tired to we went to bed early.
Saturday
We got up early to go on a tour of the city. It’s through a company that gives free tours, guided by young people who work on tips. It was really great, I saw a lot in just a few hours. Our host was a young British girl. German history is really fascinating and I am always so impressed by these countries that were behind the Iron Curtain that have come so far in just my own lifetime. We saw the Brandenburg Gate, Check Point Charlie, the Berlin Wall, the site of Hitler’s old bunker, where the book burnings took place and much more. Right in Parisner Square near the gate, and the French and American Embassies is a famous hotel where many world leaders have stayed, including Bush and Obama but it is also the same hotel where Michael Jackson dangled his baby over a crowd of his fans. Another interesting sight (for very different reasons) was the Nazi Airforce building, it is the last remaining piece of Nazi architecture. It is HUGE and grey and looks sort of like a prison. During communism it was the Ministry of Ministries and today it is the tax building for the German building. It has a mural on it added by the Communist regime that has pictures of people demonstrating there love of socialism, later on a photo was added in the same proportions as the mural to show what the demonstrations really looked like under Communism. The Holocaust memorial was very unusual, it is actually called "The memorial to to the murdered Jews of Europe". It is many stone blocks of varying heights across a broad expanse of space. Supposedly the artist was inspired by the Jewish Cemetery behind the Pinkas cemetery here in Prague, but the idea is that the memorial is open to interpretation so the artist has been intentionally vague about its meaning.
After the tour we went to the German Museum of history at our tour guides suggestion. It was huge and covers the time from the Germanic tribes all the way up to the fall of the Berlin wall. Afterwards we got a quick dinner and rested at our hostel. Then we went on a pub crawl. It was a good way to see a few different bars. The first one, called Zapata, was my favorite. It was in an area known for the arts. There was an abandoned building behind the bar where artists had taken over and made into a gallery. The outside of the building is covered in graffiti and inside there was a sculpture of a dragon that periodically would breathe fire.
Sunday
We got up and ate breakfast at the hostel, some people had school work to do so they went back on an earlier train but Naomi and I stayed. Then when we got on the metro the worst thing that has happened to me in Europe occurred. I say down and a man came in the door way and spit on me. I could not believe it happened. I looked at him and he smiled and walked back onto the metro platform. It was disgusting. As I tried to shake of what happened, we went to the Jewish Museum. It is probably one of the coolest museums I have ever been too. It is very modern but the ancient items inside do not seem out of place. It is interactive and suitable for children without being immature. I wish I could have spent more time there. Some interesting parts were the Garden of Exile and the Holocaust Tower. The Garden is a memorial to all of the Jews who were forced to leave Germany. It is vertical stone towers filled with earth that have olive trees growing out of the top. However, the ground it’s on is slanted and when you walk around it you feel disoriented, it is supposed to echo the feelings Jews had when they had to leave their home of Germany. The Holocaust Tower is a tall cement room. It is unheated and unlit except for one little slit where light shines through.
Afterwards, we looked at the New Synagogue. It has a Moorish style with a big onion dome on top. There is an exhibit inside but we only had enough time to see the gift shop and the main lobby. I really wish I could have stayed through Monday and seen more of the commemorations to Kristalnacht.
I really enjoyed my time in Berlin, but it is such a huge dynamic city, I wish I had more time to experience it.

You say you want a (Velvet) Revolution...

Last week I had some midterms for classes so I stayed in Prague over the weekend to study for them and work on some projects. The first was a book report for my Czechs, Germans and Jews Class. It was a really interesting book about Czech and Slovak Jews after 1945. It discussed the role of youth groups in identity formation and the phenomenon of “discovering” Jewish identity. And not in the abstract way people talk abut it now, I am referring to literally discovering you are Jewish. Many Parents who were alive during the Shoah and then came into the Party’s regime in the 1950’s so feared persecution that they did not even burden their children with the knowledge that they were Jewish. Many find out when they found ritual items hidden in their home, inquired about relatives who died in the Holocaust or were harassed by a classmate.

The second midterm was a scavenger hunt that brought me all over Prague. I went to the Contemporary History Institute, The Czechoslovak Documentation Center, The Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes and the Libri Prohibiti. I did lots of other research based on clues, I had to do a lot asking around and research for it, as well as translations into Czech. However, the most striking thing about it was discovering how different the relationship between the Czech Republic and it's history is from Western culture. George Orwell said “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.” Under Communism and the occupation the Czechoslovaks had their history taken away from them. After the Velvet Revolution, it was necessary to completely reexamine recent history as everything was touched by communist ideology, hence the formation of the Contemporary History Institute, The Czechoslovak Documentation Center and the Libri Prohibiti. The Library collects banned and prohibited literature, some of which was self published often found in used bookstores around Europe. My professor, Barbara Day, was involved in getting prohibited literature into Czechoslovakia in the seventies. Last year the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes was founded. It seems like the Czech intellectual community is doing all it can to reassert ownership of their past.

Another thing that is special about Prague is its relationship with theater. It is very important to Czechs and is considered a much bigger part of the culture then in the West. Much of the dissident movement was based out of theaters in Prague. It was considered a huge accomplishment when the National Theatre was created. The election just ended in America (yes we did!) and a big deal was made out of the past jobs of the candidate. Community Organizer. Hockey Mom. Beauty Queen. Soldier. However, I think what speaks volumes about the Czechs relationship with theater and the difference between them and Americans is that their first President, Vaclav Havel, was himself a playwright before becoming a politician.
As for the election yesterday, I wanted to stay up and go to the Globe (Prague's homebase for Ex-pat life) which was open all night, but I had a Czech quiz and I was tired. So history was made while I slept and I’m ready for change.

Going to Berlin this weekend...

Polska

Thursday
Last weekend I went to Poland with my program, so about 40 other college students. Even though Krakow is pretty far away, we took a bus and it took about nine hours. Due to traffic(it was a holiday weekend) and fog we were slowed down. I had to stop looking out the window because the fog was freaking me out. I kept thinking about when dad told me about this terrible fog in Orlando and cars kept crashing into each other. We arrived around 4 am and I shared a big room with bunk beds with my freinds Dan, Paul, Ariella, Shaina, Molly, Ryan, and Alina. It was hard for me to sleep on the bus so I fell asleep right away.
Friday
We ate the free breakfast at the hostel, which was bread and Nutella and had a walking tour with one of the CERGE professors. We saw the old town square which dates back to the 13th century. There is a strong Catholic influence in Poland. St. Adalbert’s Church, and St. Mary’s Basilica. In St. Mary’s Basillica trumpets play from one of its windows every hour. People play music and stand still pretending to be statues hoping people will give them change. We overlooked the Vistula River and saw a statue of a dragon breathing real fire. There is dragon stuff everywhere in Poland because this story about a boy who slayed a dragon that was terrorizing Krakow. Some of what we saw were just ruins because even though Krakow is in better shape then Warwaw, some of the destruction from Austria is still present.
For lunch we found a little place the hostel suggested and I had a big plate of boiled cabbage pirogues which were actually really good. No one spoke any English and the service was ridiculously fast, they literally brought it to your table as you ordered. I think my meal cost about 10 zloty, which is about three dollars. Everything in Poland is so cheap. It is not as beautiful as Prague but I would not be surprised if it becomes the next popular place to do a study abroad semester. After lunch I went with my friend Ari to a bar where the Unsound Music Festival was taking place. We listened to the DJ and talked. Afterwards I went back to the hostel to have dinner with my school group. The restaurant was called Chimera and I enjoyed it. But we did see a mouse in the restaurant so that was pretty gross. Also, apparently the tap water in Poland is terrible so I drank out of bottles the whole time. Afterwards, everyone hung out in the bar below the hostel and then went back to the music festival.
Saturday
We all slept in and then went out and looked at some of the stores and the outdoor market. I really like the clothes in Europe. I bought something for mom at the market. For lunch we had more pirogues.
After lunch, we had to meet up with the buses to go to Auschwitz. Two other students and I had already been. Ariella went with the March of the Living, I went before my Isreal trip with my camp and Jared had gone with his family. The general consensus was that we did not want to go again but Gina said we had to because of some liability issue. The thing about going for a second time is all the curiosity and nerves turn into anxiety and dread. I really felt sick the whole way there. At Aushwitz I was given the option to stay in a café but I decided I would try and go. I figure I am the only one from my family who has gone, and maybe this time I could try and witness for them. As I walked under the “Arbeit Macht Frei” sign, I watched everyone from my program take a picture of it and I thought about how glad I was to able to have that experience of seeing the camps with my friends and other Jews. After about the second exhibit it became too hard. I stopped walking with the tour before the “Plunder” room. I still had a crystal clear picture of what the thousands of glasses, shoes and clothes the Nazi stole looked like. I did not need to see it again. Instead I just walked around the camp and did not go into any of the rooms. It had the same quiet evil I remember from four years ago. The silence in the camp is deafening. Everyone wears headphones, so even the tour guides speak in a whisper. I realized that as much as I have grown and learned the whole idea of the Shoah still boggles my mind. Right now I am taking a class called “Comprehending the Holocaust” but it has only given me more questions. Afterwards, we took a short bus ride to Birkenau but I had had enough so I stayed on the bus with Ariella. Everyone got back on the bus, and it was interesting to see people’s responses. Some were sad and I could tell others really wanted to discuss what they had seen.
We rode back to Krakow and I had dinner with my roommates Molly and Ashley, our friends Paul, Ryan and Connor, our program directors Ana and Gina and two of our professors, one of which teaches my “Comprehending the Holocaust” class. The other professor suggested this restaurant which is housed in the cellar of an old theatre and Prince Edward used to like to come. The food was good but the company was better. Ana is Czech and talked to me about her life as a teenager during the revolution and my professor told me about some of his involvement with dissent from the party and his work on the academic striking committee after the Velvet Revolution. It was really interesting. After dinner everyone was really tired from a heavy day and hung out in the hostel bar and then went to bed.

Sunday
After some more bread and nutella and logistical issues we got on the bus to go to the Wieseczka Salt Mine where we would have a guided tour. After walking down 378 stairs we got to the mine, which I guess used to be a mine but now mostly houses bizarre salt sculpture. Many of the sculptures were of gomes. On the right you can see Da Vinci's Last Supper...in salt. So it was pretty weird but it is apparently really famous. There was also a church and large room where people have parties. The tour guide also kept telling us different records the salt mine had for different things being furthest undground.
Afterwards I got on the bus and ate a bag lunch I bought at the hostel which was disgusting and we got home around 11.

Ik hou van Amsterdam

This is overwhelming…I have so much to say.

Thursday
Kiefer, Molly, Laura and I got to the Prague Airport using the metro and a bus. I cannot say enough how much I appreciate the public transportation here. Of course, as usual I was stopped by security to have an extra pat down. I swear I am on some “do not fly” list or something. On the plane I sat behind an American girl, we got to talking and she was from Atlanta. She went to camp at Barney right across the street from Coleman and I knew some of her friends. Small world. Then we took one of the double decker trains from the airport into the city, where we walked to our hostel. We got a little lost but Amsterdam is so beautiful I didn’t mind. People call it the “Venice of the North” because there are canals and boats everywhere. People were very helpful with directions. I love Prague, but it is a lonely city. When you’re walking around you really get the sense that you are on your own. In Amsterdam when people saw us looking a map they would offer to help us find our way. Another thing that is different in Amsterdam is you need to watch out for bicycles! They definitely have right of way. I can see why people use them, it cheap and the city is small and well laid out so bikes make sense. It was pretty late and a lot of restaurants were closed but Amsterdam is know for its international cuisine, especially Middle eastern and Indonesian, so we went to this place called Jerusalem, the owner was Israeli and he tried to m’dabir some Ivrit with me but I’m pretty rusty.
Friday
We woke up very early because we all wanted to avoid the massive lines that build up around the Anne Frank house on weekends. If Amsterdam wasn’t beautiful enough, when we woke up there was a full double rainbow in the sky. I really enjoyed the Anne Frank. Her story is so iconic and it is nice to see how people from all over the world come to learn about her. There are different displays in each room but no rooms have been recreated at the request of Otto Frank. I got a little teary when I looked at the place on the wall where the children had been measuring how much they grew. I remember reading the diary when I was young and thinking that Anne was a young women because of how she wrote, but this reminded that she was only ten when the occupation in the Netherlands began.
After this we ate at a place called “De Oude Wester.” I got a sweet pancake with bananas, which is sort of a crepe dish the Dutch are famous for. It really bothers me that there are cats that walk around in all the restaurants. I don’t like cats that much so of course they always come and sit under my chair.
Then we went to a famous coffee shop called Amnesia. In addition to drinks and food, coffee shops in Amsterdam sell marijuana products and it is not at all considered a deviant behavior. People can just walk up and by hash, weed, pre-rolled joints or space food. Students just sit in the shop with their laptops doing homework while they smoke a joint. Shrooms are legal too but all hard drugs are also illegal. It’s interesting how people demonize marijuana in the States and in Amsterdam where it is legal, people experience much less violent crime.
After some coffee we went to the Rijksmuseum(there's Kiefer and I in front), which features all of the Dutch Masters. There were really famous pieces like Vermeer’s The Kitchen Maid. I really liked this Museum. There was an entire room dedicated to Rembrandt’s “The Night Watch.” There are laminated pieces that point out where things have been changed or restored over the years. It is really interesting all the things paintings go through.
Saturday
We woke up and went to an open air market right beside our hostel. There was lots of bread, fish, juice and even clothes. We got some really good pastries for breakfast. Then we went to go on a tour of the Heineken Brewery but it was closed for some renovations unfortunately. We were planning on going to the Van Gogh museum so we moved on.
The bottom floor held the Rembrandt Collection. It is 125 pieces that have been brought back to Holland from other countries. The top three floors hold a chronological collection of Van Gogh’s works. I really could have spent hours there. VVG is sort of the Beatles of the art world. He only made art for about ten years, but he created so much diverse art that has had a somewhat unparalleled impact. You never really know what a painting looks like until you get close to it so this was really exciting because Van Gogh’s Bedroom is one of my favorite paintings. I think most people that have been to my house have seen my attempt at it from middle school.
Afterwards, we went to Padi, an Indonesian restaurant. I was not too sure what I ordered but it was pretty good. Afterward we had a drink at Café de Jaren which we got a recommendation for. It was very beautiful and posh looking on the inside. Afterwards we saw the Red Light District, on the way we would pass Dam Sqare where a large carnival was taking place. The rainbows of light were really beautiful. The Red Light District is sort of like a very amped up Bourbon Street. Seeing all the women behind the glass brought to mind little cages. The whole thing made me feel a little icky. Also, I thought the District closed up at night, but the prostitutes stand there all day, too. Afterwards we went to this place called Wonder Bar where we sat on the floor on cushions and smoked hookah(flavored tobacco). We were so tired from the long day.
Sunday
We checked out of our hotel and walked to the Rembrandt Museum and house. It shows both his work, his students and his studio. There was a floor full of his etchings which are really fantastic in there simple and abbreviated style that gives a really dramatic image. I watched a woman do a demonstration of print making that Rembrandt would do. She said he often changed something about the original metal etching through out, so each one is different. We got a quick lunch and went back to this really beautiful park where we watched people complete the Amsterdam marathon. Then we headed back to Amsterdam Central where we flew home.

I really thought Amsterdam was beautiful and I hope I can visit again some time. Plus, look at how good I look in clogs.

Catching up on last week...

This past weekend I stayed in Prague because I wanted to study for my Czech midterm. Molly and Kiefer had a friend in town so we did some touristy stuff, like going to Pivovarský Dům, a restaurant known for its flavored beers on tap. We tried the sour cherry beer, coffee beer, banana beer, nettle beer, and beer champagne. I thought it was all pretty gross except for the champagne beer which tasted more like a regular light beer. We also went to a club near St. Charles bridge that is five stories high with a different kind of music on each floor. Lots of people from our program came but it was mostly filled with European tourists. On Sunday we went to The Globe to study, its a book store and English coffee shop/restaurant that kind of serves as the heart of the English speaking expatriot community. It hosts events like watching the Presidential Debates at 3 am.

On Monday I have a full day of classes, one is called "Life in a Totalitarian Regime." Last week we learned about the influence of Jazz on dissidence under communism. It's interesting to learn about the relationship between my two cities-New Orleans and Prague-when there doesn't seem to be a strong connection. Music was a huge part of both promoting party ideology and protest. Yesterday we heard a version of "Say a Little Prayer for You" in Czech but with changed lyrics that was approved pop music.

On Monday night I went to a Sukkot dinner with my friend Ari at the Jerusalem Street synagogue. It is one of the few synagogues in New Town, closer to where I live. It is really beautiful and very unique from the other synagogues in that it was built relatively recently, around the turn of the century, and is done in an art nouveau/Moorish style. Now it is a conservative synagogue. After a short service we all ate dinner in the Sukkah. I was surprised at the amount of people who came, I guess about fifty altogether and there were several students there. The congregation members were all very friendly and interested in where we were from. Afterwards I got coffee with a couple girls who were there who I met earlier during high holidays.

On Tuesday in my walking tour class, we walked thr0ugh St. Charles Bridge and learned about the different statues. Many of them are of Saints and a lot have anti-Semitic and anti-Turk imagery in them. After that we walked to St. Nicholas's church. It is extremely heavily and ornamented and basically completely pink and gold on the inside. Afterwards, we made our way further out toward Prague Castle and saw the Senate building and we couldn't go inside, but the gardens were really beautiful with fountains, coy ponds and lots of flowers and greenery.

Also, I got my computer back today from the repair shop. Yay!

I got back from Amsterdam on Sunday, but I have far too much to write about to include it in this post and I have a lot to do. I'm currently choosing my courses for next year and I have a presentation for my living history class due tomorrow. Cau!

Visiting Litomerice

I went back to the same synagogue for evening Rosh Hashana services. This time the security guard asked me a bunch of questions and asked to see ID. Since they did not split up into conservative and orthodox for this service I was sitting on the women's side again. But it was much better then at Chabad because our area overlooked the synagogue and I felt more like I was a part of the service. The also let people come up to the ark and offer prayers, which they said was a Sephardic tradition. The Rabbi came up and said hello to Ariella and I and told us to come back for Sukkot Dinner and Shabbat. After the shofar was blown they had a light break the fast but we were still hungry so a bunch the students that were at services went to Bohemian Bagel.

Yesterday, we all met up for the day trip to Litomerice at school at 8:30 AM. When we got there we went on a short tour of the town. It was very beautiful and its claim to fame is that poet Karel Hynek Mácha lived there, although he is buried in the Vysehrad cemetary I visited on Wednesday. People were much friendlier there then in Prague. We visited a castle because you cannot go anywhere in the Czech Republic without visiting a castle. But it had a really beautiful garden and caves underneath and our program director Ana lived there for a while because her parents were the caretakers. We ate lunch at a restaurant that was were the execution gallows in the town used to be, so there were hand cuffs and masks on the wall. I also climbed to the top of this lookout point which was pretty terrifying because the steps were tiny and narrow and the ceilings were very low.

We then went to the winery, and looked at the barrels and the caves where the wine ages. Then we tasted four white wines and two red. After that we headed back towards Prague and Gina invited my roommates Laura and Molly and I to get dinner with her and her finance at a traditional Czech pub. Our friends Ryan and Dan and one of Dan's friends came as well. Dan and his friend are from New Zealand but they have this fascination with American hip hop culture and stong opinons about American politics. I talked to Gina's finance about how marrying into an American family. Dinner was nice, but all the wine and the long day proved to be too much for Molly who fell asleep during dinner.

I think for the rest of the weekend I will just be focusing on studying for my Czech midterm.