On Tuesday night I went to Swan Lake and it was beautiful. I don't know much about Ballet but I really enjoyed. The theater was gorgeous, too. It was the perfect backdrop to a classic ballet performance. After that we hung out at M1 and the people from South Africa were talking to me and wanted to talk all about the election and if I was going vote for Obama.
Wednesday during my living history class we visited Veserad Castle. You have to climb a bunch of stairs to get up to it but it was beautiful. The views were great but it was a little foggy. There is a park near it with statues were we were lectured. Our teacher told us a bunch of weird Czech legends about these sister and showed us a really cute play ground. The weather was perfect for sitting outside. We also saw a cemetery were important Czechs are buried. The plots were above ground and had a lot of flowers growing right out of them. I think I want to visit it again, I like going places with my class but its never enough time to really enjoy what you're seeing because you have to deal with the logistics of a large group. It was erev Rosh Hashana but I was so tired after class. I went to sleep and the later I went to a bar with a lot of people from my program called Cross Club. It was insane looking. The walls are decorated with motherboards of computors and everything is completely industrial and made of other recycled objects. The coolest thing were these light fixtures on the ceiling that glowed, spun and moved. It's kind of hard to describe but it was very cool. Most of the music was reggae and some of the people were a little scarey.
Today I went to services with four other kids from my program and they were nice but long. I would probably liken it most to a conservative service. There was a baby naming which was really cute. The rabbi explained that it is a special simcha for the community when a Jewish baby is born in Prague. For many years under Hungarian rule there could only be one Jewish child that could be married per family, then in WWII babies were not allowed to be born and until 1989 babies could be born but under Communism they were not supposed to identify with being Jewish. He said the Jewish community in Prague was slowly but surely coming back. I might go back tonight to hear the final blowing of the shofar.
I am so hungry!
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Sick in the City
This weekend was really relaxed. My roommates were all on different trips and I was thinking about going to Slovenia with Molly and Keifer but I woke up on Thursday and I could barely speak. I spent most of Thursday in bed and on Friday I was still not feeling well but I ventured out and took a long walk around my neighborhood on some of the streets I had not looked at yet. I'm glad I live in Praha 2, because I get to experience Old Town and Praha 1 because my friends live there and all the historic stuff but I don't feel like I am around tourists all the time.
On Saturday I went to Old Town Square to see the Dali exhibit but there were tons of people in the square and some traditional Czech singing and dancing on a temporary stage. I watched for a while and looked around at the different booths that were set up selling food and realized it was "International Chef's Day." I made my way to the exhibit, its in a building that that just houses different traveling exhibits. The Dali exhibit was cool, intermixed were pictures of Dali in his apartment taken by Vaclav Chocola, a Czech photographer that met Dali in Paris. It also incorporated some of his scultures and drawings. I really liked the etchings and a long series of small pictures inspired by the Divine Comedy. The images he created had a lot of magic and energy.
On Sunday I bummed around some more and walked to the church yard and read and did some sketching. I finally finished Unbearable Lightness of Being. I was an uneventful weekend but I feel a lot better.
Today I visited the Pinkas Synagogue in the Jewish Quarter with one of my classes. It has the names of Jews who died in the Shoah all over the walls. Its very overwhelming to look at. I have very specific memories going there in high school. I think the most interesting part is the cometary in the back where people are buried twelve deep and the gravestones are all faded and crooked. It gives it a very eerie and romantic feel.
Afterward I went to Tesco (the Czech version of Target) and got some boring things I needed.
Tonight I'm going to the Opera House to see "Swan Lake."
On Saturday I went to Old Town Square to see the Dali exhibit but there were tons of people in the square and some traditional Czech singing and dancing on a temporary stage. I watched for a while and looked around at the different booths that were set up selling food and realized it was "International Chef's Day." I made my way to the exhibit, its in a building that that just houses different traveling exhibits. The Dali exhibit was cool, intermixed were pictures of Dali in his apartment taken by Vaclav Chocola, a Czech photographer that met Dali in Paris. It also incorporated some of his scultures and drawings. I really liked the etchings and a long series of small pictures inspired by the Divine Comedy. The images he created had a lot of magic and energy.
On Sunday I bummed around some more and walked to the church yard and read and did some sketching. I finally finished Unbearable Lightness of Being. I was an uneventful weekend but I feel a lot better.
Today I visited the Pinkas Synagogue in the Jewish Quarter with one of my classes. It has the names of Jews who died in the Shoah all over the walls. Its very overwhelming to look at. I have very specific memories going there in high school. I think the most interesting part is the cometary in the back where people are buried twelve deep and the gravestones are all faded and crooked. It gives it a very eerie and romantic feel.
Afterward I went to Tesco (the Czech version of Target) and got some boring things I needed.
Tonight I'm going to the Opera House to see "Swan Lake."
Friday, October 3, 2008
L'shana Tova
This Monday was erev Rosh Hashana and I met up with my friend Ariella in Old Town to go to services at Chabad. I am not exactly used to the way they worship. The men were in a larger room and the women in the kitchen(the symbolic irony of the location was not lost on me) which was adjacent. About ten women came and about forty men. It was all in Hebrew but I recognized most of what was being said or chanted. A really nice woman introduced herself, she was from New York but had been teaching English in Prague for several years. She invited us to the dinner that was happening afterwards. The dinner was very nice and people were very friendly and everyone was using English to communicate. We sat between a family from Israel and man visiting from France. There was also a lot of students there.
The next day Zack and I went to the Spanish Synagogue. Before we went in, the security guard asked if he was Jewish and when Zack said yes, and then he asked if he could see his passport. I went to look for mine but the guard said it was okay. There were only about twenty people inside, and the service was in Czech, English and Hebrew but the Rabbi was American and had a translator. The service was done in a much more familar style but was none too inspiring. The Spanish Synagogue is large and beautiful, with gold and turquiose heavily decorated walls. The contrast was a bit depressing between the gradeur of the past Jewish heritage and the dimsal turnout of the present. I forget sometimes though that it has only been about twenty years that the Czech have been able to worship and one of my professors said that the country tends to be secular, so I suppose this may just be how it is here.
The next day Zack and I went to the Spanish Synagogue. Before we went in, the security guard asked if he was Jewish and when Zack said yes, and then he asked if he could see his passport. I went to look for mine but the guard said it was okay. There were only about twenty people inside, and the service was in Czech, English and Hebrew but the Rabbi was American and had a translator. The service was done in a much more familar style but was none too inspiring. The Spanish Synagogue is large and beautiful, with gold and turquiose heavily decorated walls. The contrast was a bit depressing between the gradeur of the past Jewish heritage and the dimsal turnout of the present. I forget sometimes though that it has only been about twenty years that the Czech have been able to worship and one of my professors said that the country tends to be secular, so I suppose this may just be how it is here.
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