Before another
week passes without a blog update, I figure I should put a few minutes in to
catch up. Life is just getting a bit busier as I am slowly realizing that I
have three term papers I need to prepare in the next few weeks while also
trying to get out and see the city and see all of the things I’ve missed.
Highlights (and things of note) of the last week (as far as I can remember)
1) Last Thursday
I went over to Devin’s to meet two of his friends (Emma and Harper) who were
visiting for the weekend. We, Devin, Martha, Emma, Harper & I, spent most
of the night just talking in Devin’s apartment with small excursions to pick up
some wine, or in my case also a dinner, and ended the night on the floor of
Devin’s room listening to music and watching the Daily Show.
2) As I already
mentioned, I have a few term papers due in the next few weeks. Being me, I’ve
decided that I should start worrying about them, because I feel like I have not
done nearly enough work or research to be able to produce a paper to which I
would want to attach my name. With that in mind, I did a little research last
weekend, but yesterday, on my day off for International Students Day, I was
much more productive and finally put some words on a page which I took as a
good sign – even if I’ll need to edit them in the future. The topics are
actually kind of interesting, and I like my history topic the best in which I’m
trying to determine why Charles IV is such a beloved ruler since he doesn’t
seem to have done that much and yet
he is generally acknowledged as the greatest Czech king or as bringing out a
Golden Age in Prague. For Transatlantic Relations, I’m tentatively writing
about German nationalism and pan-Germanism leading up to WWI, during the Weimar
Republic and with the rise of Nazism, but for that one I don’t really have a
clear aim yet, so it’s just a mess at the moment. In Economics of Transition I
will be looking at an economy that has transitioned from a command market into
a free(r) market system with the fall of the Soviet Union and see what has
worked and what has not. But that one is a group project and much shorter, so
I’m not as worried about it.
3) Definitely
one of my highlights from this past week was my Friday night cooking lesson
with Hannah! Hannah is an amazing chef and she’s been making delicious dinners
for her roommates and friends all semester. I’d only seen her in action once
before when I attended a group-cooking lesson at her apartment for fried cheese
(see
here) but that was enough and I asked her if she would teach me how to cook
other things too. Well, I finally got my wish on Friday. I went over to her
place and first learned how to make bread. Starting with the basics, I got some
tips on how to mix the yeast, how to knead and then on how to let the dough
rise and the like.
With the dough
made and needing to rise, we turned our attention to the rest of the meal.
Hannah has a bit of a sweet tooth (which is great)
so in addition to roasted vegetables (eggplant, zucchini, tomatoes, etc.) and
sweet potato mashed potatoes, we also planned to bake Apple Cider Donuts with
homemade caramel to dip them in. We needed materials though so we made a quick
trip to a huge grocery store (in comparison to the hole in the wall I normally
shop in). This should have been a routine trip; pick up yeast, sugar, cream,
some vegetables, etc.
Of course life
isn’t routine. Just as we were finishing up, with our basket full of food, a
security guard comes up to us and speaks a few sentences in rapid Czech.
Neither Hannah nor I could make heads or tails of what this gentleman was
trying to tell us and stood there with a blank stare on our face. He got the
hint and with broken English and hand gestures he tried to translate, “Excuse
me… please, uh, finish your shopping… quickly… there is a… ummm… bomba.” The
last word was accentuated by a furious frenzy of hand waving. A little confused
and unsure if we understood him correctly, he directed us toward the exit as he
proceeded to warn other customers. Unwilling to sacrifice the sugar though, I
went to find a package of sugar and then we got in line to check out since they
were still open.
When we finally
finished checking out, the mall had been nearly completely evacuated (except
for those people behind us in line) and police officers barred patrons from
reentering into the mall. A crowd of a at least a few hundred gathered in front
of the mall – either to watch or to continue their shopping as soon as they
were allowed back inside the mall – but Hannah and I didn’t wait around and
quickly vacated the premises to return to the safety of her apartment.
The food turned
out beautifully and though I’m a little nervous to try to make the donuts/caramel
on my own, I think I can do it after seeing how it was done which is pretty
exciting and as soon as I have burned off the calories from the dozen+ donuts I
ate I’ll be attempting them on my own. Did you know caramel was just sugar,
cream and butter? Nom.
4) On Saturday I
went to Telč, a
small town in southern Moravia, with Martha for the day. Sinzy, a classmate of
mine in Czech, had given a presentation on the town for her immersion project
and accompanied the presentation with some really beautiful photos that she had
taken during her time there (she’s a fabulous photographer though, so I wasn’t
really surprised). As a result of the presentation though, I had decided that I
wanted to go myself and see if I might be able to take a few photos of my own
(some should be up on Shutters & Sounds soon hopefully). Initially, I
planned to go alone, but in the end I invited a few friends and Martha said
yes, so off we went for an 8 AM departure. 8 AM departures suck by the way. In
order to make them, I had to wake up at 6:30. 6:30 on a Friday is early.
Anyway, I made it to the bus stop on time and off we went.
When we arrived
it was just around lunch time so we made it to the town square, which is
actually a UNESCO world heritage site, full of Baroque and Renaissance
architecture. Martha brought her Lonely Planet guidebook and looked up a nice
little restaurant for lunch. I definitely had too much for lunch ordering both
a dish of goulash and a plate of trout, but it was good.
The rest of the
day was spent wandering through castles and churches, parks and farm fields,
taking pictures and talking.
After a few
hours of this, we stopped in for some ice cream and a cool little coffee house,
which was showing the photography of Antonin
Bina and was fun to look at while we ate.
The day ended as
we arrived at the bus stop just in time to catch the last few minutes of a
beautiful sunset. I don’t know if any of my pictures do it justice (I haven’t
really looked at them yet), but I’m hoping some of them turned out. I have a
feeling that I won’t really have a time to edit many of my photos until I get
back to the states, but who knows, maybe I’ll find a few minutes to edit a few before
then.
Quickly – before
I have to run off to class – one of the first places we saw in Telč was the graveyard. We were walking to the square, but
decided to stop and take a look at it in case we wouldn’t have time later in the
day. We were talking a bit when Martha had one of my favorite quotes of the day
saying, “Graveyards are like a kindergarten class nappy, so many souls resting
quietly.” I don’t know if I’ve ever tried to compare graveyards to
kindergarteners before, but the quote amused me, so I thought I would share it.
More after class.
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