Springtime in Brno

This post will probably sound like I took it straight off of Biggs' blog but the sunshine has put me in such a good mood I don't even care.

Spring has finally come to Brno, it's in the 60's and absolutely beautiful. I was walking to class this morning after I had gotten off the tram and MGMT was blasting on my iPod and everything just seemed so perfect. I had my sunglasses on and no jacket. I almost completely blew off class to just walk around in the sun. I then remembered I havn't gone to any classes in about a week and a half and changed my mind. But after class I walked around for a bit, there were little easter stands selling eggs and traditional easter whips (it's a Czech thing) everywhere and everything was so much busier. I alsobought the new Stieg Larsson book today which I think I'm going to go sit out on my balcony and read.

Happy Spring everyone!

Life So Far

I've decided that since I've been here exactly 36 days now I would do a quick recap on my life thus far abroad.

Places Visited

-Vienna, Austria

-Prague, Czech Republic

-Budapest, Hungary

-Dublin, Castlebar, and Galway, Ireland

-Barcelona, Spain (this weekend)

Classes Attended

-probably less than ten

Homework

-Currently writing the first paper of the semester and so far the only homework

Books Read

-Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

-Girl who Played with Fire

-Summer Meditations, Vaclav Havel's book (in progress)

Cooking Prowess

-Still non-existent

Purchased

-One set of Soviet dictator themed bubushka dolls

For a little over a month in I'd say I wasn't doing half bad.

Also here are some pictures from my trip to Budapest over the weekend

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITUo-5XjZAA

And here is why Europeans hate us and why I don't blame them

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THyTnt00b5I&feature=related

Ireland

Here’s the deal. I just took a nice long, eventful trip to Ireland. I wanted to write a blog about it but to make it more reader friendly I’m going to number brief descriptions and below include (by matching number) a more detailed explanation of what happened. This way you can choose what seems interesting and it makes this whole process more effective (I hope).

Here goes:

1. We learned that you need to be 27 to rent an automatic car big enough for 5 people in Ireland.

2. Creepy overly drunk 60 year old men in bars can sometimes be the best tour guides ever.

3. I got chased by a cow that was protecting a castle.

4. I explored a shipwreck.

5. Met a dog who made a great tour guide.

6. I attended my very first (and possibly last) stag party.

7. We stayed in a castle that was cheaper than a hostel.

8. I almost got my nose pierced.

9. I had a pint of Guinness on St. Patricks Day in Ireland.

1. The game plan had been to rent a car in order to drive around the country. We went from Dublin to Galway to Castlebar and eventually back to Dublin. Driving was going to be the most effective way to do this until we went to Hertz rental and they basically laughed in our faces. On the bright side we met the nicest bus driver throughout our entire trip riding the shuttle to and from the airport. This led us to take the bus throughout Ireland, which was probably safer for us anyway.

2. When we got to Galway we met two fairly creepy extremely drunk 60 year olds in a bar who told us the best place to visit in Galway was one of the Aran Islands Innes Oire, they told us we would have the island entirely to ourselves and it would be one of the prettiest places we would ever see. Turns out they were totally right, I wouldn’t change my day in Innes Oire for anything and from then on out I decided to always take advice from drunk locals in the bar (something we continued to do).

3. On Innes Oire there was a ruin of an old castle we decided we wanted a closer look at. We went up, climbed over fences and up hills. Eventually we got there, my friend Elizabeth and I strolled up to the castle, around the corner, only to come face to face with a cow (not a bull mind you, a cow. The cow charged at us, and we went sprinting back around the corner and I went right over the fence, I’ve never been so glad to be a steeplechaser. It’s been decided that the moment of the trip we most wish we had a picture of was Elizabeth and me, running away from castle and cow, with looks of pure terror on our faces. It’s safe to say that was the scariest moment of my life.

4. On the far side of the Island was a rusted out old ship that we went and wandered through. It was so cool. Plus it had a gorgeous view of the Cliffs of Mohar. Thank god my tetanus shot is up to date.

5. Darby, the dog that we found on the island, decided to follow us around the rest of the day showing us the quickest ways around the island. Everyone is friendly in Ireland.

6. A stag party for those of you who do not know is a bachelor party. On our way to dinner after the island we ran into these two guys singing on the street, they shanghaied us into becoming their backup singers for wonderwall. Turns out one of the guys was getting married and they were having his stag weekend in Galway (stag and hen parties are all the rage there). So they invited us to join them for dinner and we ended up hanging out with about 20 guys, some of them Olympic rowers (though they were Irish and that was probably a lie), for dinner. They also gave us great advice about what to do during our stay.

7. We stayed at this fancy resort in Castlebar that was actually in a castle because they upgraded our sort of shitty hotel room to a swank resort/spa one for free. Since we were sneaking two people in, it ended up being cheaper than a hostel!

8. Unfortunately my friend got sick so we had to scrap that idea.

9. I don’t think that needs further explination.

Also, since some of you may not be my facebook friends and would like to see pictures (mother) here’s a slideshow I made with pictures from the trip.

http://www.youtube.com/user/walkysacynic#p/a/u/0/SzAumTMQB-0

Laundry

Laundry here is quickly becoming the biggest pain in my ass. First, due to the loss of some keys and the breaking of some machines, there is currently one washing machine for 200 people with one key to the door in my dorm. This means that no one ever knows where the key is. Therefore it becomes quite difficult to actually manage to do laundry. As a partial solution to this there is a laundromat/bar called "ClubWash" that the International Students Club advertises. They'll do your laundry if you bring it to them as well as pick it up from the dorm and bring it back to you. All for a pretty reasonable price. So due to the fact that I couldn't get the laundry key I decided to email ClubWash to get them to pick up my laundry. Unfortunately, due to technical difficulties, they were unable to pick up until wednesday but told me if I dropped it off before tuesday they would have it back to me by wednesday. So, because I'm desperately in need of clean laundry, I set out today for ClubWash around 1:30 pm. I hauled my laundry across town on multiple trams. Dragged it through a pretty sketchy Brno neighborhood to get to ClubWash, only to find that ClubWash does not open until 5pm. So I had to haul it back to my dorm and after all that effort I am still without clean clothes. Thank god for the shink where I've been hand-washing my clothing.

Chargers!

As I was on my way to class today, right as got off the tram, a guy walked by in a Chargers hat. Light blue, with a bolt on the front. It took a minute after I saw it to realize that it was weird, and that most Czechs aren't Chargers fans, but it was a nice reminder of home.

Nightlife

Okay guys, hang with me on this one, its a long one but I think it might be worth your while.

When I started this blog I wasn't really planning on sharing much about whatever nightlife I encountered, but the events of the last few days have convinced me that a blog was necessary. It all started when on a whim I decided to join a group of girls going to Prague to see Imogen Heap. So I booked my bus ticket and bought my concert ticket and was on my way. We watched an absolutely amazing concert by a very talented artist, who was at times a mere 5 feet away from us since we were that close to the stage. After the concert we got to meet her, then we wandered around Prague until our bus left at 5 am. Unfortunately since it was a Tuesday night, other than the clubs with the cover charges we didn't want to pay we had to go to casinos. Now Casinos are all over the place here and they're also bars, bars that are open 24 hours. So we sketchily hid out in these Casino bars for about 4 hours, eventually got on our bus, back to Brno by 9 am, and passed out until it was time to go out again.

Here's where it gets more interesting and less me bragging about Imogen, the International Students Club here hosts country presentations every wednesday where the various countries make traditional food and present about their country's history and what not. Then after everyone goes to Club Mandarin. Now basically every international student at Massaryk University is leaving the dorm we all live in at the same time to go to the exact same club. This results in a mass exodus. So, like the Jews out of Egypt we flock to the bus, where about 60 of us cram onto this already half full bus. So, imagine you are just an average czech citizen, on the bus at 10, and 60 drunk kids speaking about 15 different languages with about 30 different accents, none of whom speak czech get on your bus. Then to top it off halfway through the bus rid they all start singing, in beautiful voices of course, PIVO PROSIM, PIVO PROSIM, PIVO PROSIIIIIMMMMM (translated: BEER PLEASE, BEER PLEASE, BEER PLEEEAAASE). Well, some extremely fortunate Czechs get to experience that every Wednesday.

So, after fun and dancing everyone heads out in yet another mass exodus. This one though normally includes a stop at one of the many walk up food windows. This one being the hot dog one. Well, there's a sign over the hot dog stand that says "Po-Pa 8CK" with a picture of a hot dog (by the way for those of you doing the math, that would be less than 50 cents) so naturally for most of the time we've been here people have been ordering these "Po-Pas", because thats what the menu says...kinda. We've discovered the translation. Po would be the abbreviation for "Pondeli" or "Monday" and pa would be "Patek" aka "Friday". So, essentially they've been ordering Mon-Fris for about 3 weeks. Yet another way the language barrier makes life more difficult. Eventually the mass exodus ends back in Vinarska (the dorm) and life goes on (though not until the next afternoon of course).