Adventures in a land far far away

Just in case

2005-11-13T16:03:00.000-08:00

I know I am no longer in a far away land, but I am still alive in case some had thought otherwise. I have a couple more weeks left of class and less than 40 clinical hours left. Then come the reality again of finding a job and such. One of the greatest things I have been told lately has helped me keep my life in perspective. Or maybe it was just that I was told this while eating pumpkin custard out in the sun on a cool fall afternoon, but either way "Lord and Master" was again on the ball. Don't base your decisions on the thought that the outcome is permanent. Nothing is ever permanent so don't be scared to do what you want to do at this moment because if you don't do it know later you when you want to do some thing else you may need the knowledge you could of gained. There is always a reason behind your desires even if you can not always see the good at that moment. Don't let fear and comfort deter you from being the greatest you. I know that may no make sense when I type it out but trust me the girl is on to something

Happy New Year

2004-12-31T21:44:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone is having or had a Happy New Year depending on where you are in the world right now. Its strange to think that we are living in two different years at the moment. Nothing to exciting is happening here its almost 22:00 and I still don't know where I am going to be at the start of 2005. Best wishes and don't forget to get lost at some point in this new year.

back in the Peak of Good Living

2004-12-23T14:45:00.000-08:00

Just thought I would let you guys all know that I am finally home. It only took about 64 hours with about 4 of those being sleep hours. I love weather delays but hey its in the past. So now hanging out with the family and catching up on the OCs I missed while i was gone...oh the beauty of having a family full of girls.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and New year to ALL!!!!

2004-12-16T09:05:00.000-08:00

The last few bites . . .that is cinnamon and sugar and butter

Sugar Attack = Death

2004-12-16T08:18:00.000-08:00

So today my last full day in Brno, Czech Republic, I was out walking around town with my friend Laura. We came across a Cafe that she had been looking for all semester. We perused the menu and decided on some hot chocolate, which in the CZ is hot chocolate pudding. I decided I would be nice to myself and get a "Tasticky s tvarohem, maslem a skorici." In English this would be sweet pies stuffed with fromage frais, topped with butter and cinnamon. Wow, now that sounds delightful, plus we all know i have a HUGE sweet tooth. So the it comes out in this massive bowl containing about 30 of these stuffed pies covered in butter, sugar, and cinnamon. It looks great and the first few bites were wonderful. I got through the first 10 pies with easy, but washing sugar coated cream cheese down with hot chocolate pudding only works for so long. Well after making Laura eat one i dove back in for the second half. With what looked like about 6 left I had more than I could handle. That is when I noticed the Evian ad to my left and ordered one. That helped me choke down the last what turned out to be 8. I have never felt so conquered in my life, at least not by food. I now am in such a state of daze its very strange but maybe this will help me pack finally.

what's in store for the last night in BRNO? . . . A homemade CZECH monopoly then the Belgians are making Belgian Waffles for dinner and then who knows. . .

Random Side Notes

2004-12-08T23:09:00.000-08:00

Once again it has been a while since I have posted. Some things I have found out lately are kindof funny so i am going to share.
First, If you ever draw a blank on topics to discus with international friends, resort to animal noises. During the recent trips to stir up conversations amongst the countries a friend and I deicded to find out what sounds animals make in other countries. I think you might just have to find these out yourself, but a hint is to ask about a dog, frog, rooster, turtle, and any dying animal of your choice.
Second, the Brits just keep coming up with new uses for words that make life very confusing. Talking about a Football match (soccer game) Luara watched, one of the boys from England said "their kits are so ugly". The other American and I looked at each other for a minute and tried to figure out what in the world he was talking about. Come to find out what we call uniforms they call Kits, he said a uniform has a bowtie. Some things I will never get. Chips will always be chips to me not French Fries and Pants will always be pants to me.

Dobra Zprava pro dnes...Ja nikdy mam brat cestinu zase!!!!!
(Good News for the day...I never have to take a Czech Language Course again!!!)

Oh and I go home in 2 weeks just in time for some family fun and Chrismukkah!!!

Poland in a Pipe

2004-11-29T15:05:00.000-08:00

Alright so this trip was fairly eventful as most are and to keep this post from becoming a 20 page paper we are going to just give bits of stories if you want to know the whole story you can ask or just wait until I get back and you can get a live version of the story in less than a month.

For starters when you are crossing country lines you should have your passport on you. If not you get asked in polish to follow the officer with the gun off the bus as he shakes his head and calls over more guards. It is much easier than trying to talk your way out of getting arrested in English to officers that don't understand a word you are saying. So outcome of the story is that I am back in Brno so what do you think happened...

Next, The city of Pszczyna (no i can not say that word). This is the city where you can order pizza and then try to pay but you can not pay with cards or your cash...
The Castle of Pszczyna is a great place for a Time Journey with a German guide that does not want to bore us with lots of historical names but has no problem telling us every word the no named person said why they were alive and every room they walked into.

The following stop was a visit to Oswiecim to see the former concentration camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau. I don't think I can really put much of this experience into this post but it was a very cold dark gut-wrenching evening. If you have ever read or heard any of the stories about this place you can only begin to imagine it.

We ended the day in Krakow at our hostel that gave us tight little ID cards that make us look like we are secret agents. I once again shared a room with Andy, Laura, and Richard. We had a balcony so Laura and Andy went to see the view. The next thing I knew Laura is on the floor by the door and there was a loud squeal. Turns out we have pigeons sitting on the rail on the balcony and they were talking to Laura and Andy. The rest of the weekend consisted of flying objects being chucked out the door in the pigeons general direction.

Speaking of pigeons, in the Market Square people just feed pigeons and they get covered head to toe by these disgusting skyrats. Marco, from Venice, Italy, was standing with the group as we were watching all the pigeons. He then decided to run through a huge group of the pigeons to see them all fly away and such. That plan back fired. So Marco takes off running into these pigeons and these things are not afraid of a thing. Long story short, Marco emerges off the ground from under a pile of pigeons. Yes there is a video of it, I will try and get my hands on it.

The castle is up on the top of a rock above the river. At the base of the rock there is a cave that legend has it a dragon once lived in. To try and get rid of the dragon and save the city a person put a ship outside the cave. Ok so that makes sense kind of...Put a huge ship outside the cave to block the dragon in, sure why not? Then our guide (Wojtek from Poland) continues to tell the legend of how the dragon came out and ate the ship. Ok stop..What? Ate the ship? That has to be a massive dragon to eat an entire ship. Wojtek is confused, yeah he ate the ship, you know bah bah. Oh ok now that makes a difference, its a sheep that he ate, no ship whatsoever. So long to short...Dragon got so thirsty from eating it that it drank so much water it exploded.

A cool part about the City of Krakow is that there used to be another river that circled the city. Since the city is always cloudy and rainy the people thought there was too much water, and they filled in the river. Every where the river went is now a park and greenway/walking path. It is such a great idea to have a city encirled by a park that way more people can enjoy it with ease.

Ok and the drinking experiences in Poland. Beer is always cheapest so 3 of us each got a different polish beer to taste. One tasted like good old "beast" and the other two were just even worse than that. So we had to find out what polish drink since there is no way we were drinking the beer. Turns out they put syrup in there beer and then drink it either hot or cold. So I had a normal beer and added Raspberry syrup to it. I know it sounds very strange, I was sacred but it was like a Shirley Temple Black (her name when she was an adult so we liked that better than an adult Shirley temple). They also drink vodka with grass in it, cannot tell you how that one was, sorry just could not do it. They also have a polish drink that is Apple Juice with Vodka, not a bad idea either.

Now back to the beer or Piwa as they call it. Five of us went out one night to a Pub that served Rura Piwa. This is a 3.3 liter clear pipe of beer, it has its own tap. So i guess its like having your own tap at your table. It is a very interesting idea. It saved the waiters from having to carry a ton of pitchers all the time since these pipes held over 3 liters. Sorry i have no pictures of it because I did not bring my camera that night, the one night, skoda!

ok so it is still way to long, i just can't cut enough out. About 3 weeks left, I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.

updated joerg site

2004-11-29T14:06:00.000-08:00

he has changed the password one more time so if you want to see his new pictures, you can go here: http://service.gmx.net/mc/wRi4n33yGok3D1JcYJXD3j6U5BLJoN

I think he took more pictures of Krakow than me so you can look at his.

Joergs pictures

2004-11-29T05:03:00.000-08:00

Joerg has once again changed passwords so if you want to se his pictures, which he took more pictures of krakow than I did, you may look at them here: http://service.gmx.net/mc/wRi4n33yGok3D1JcYJXD3j6U5BLJoN

Random Info

2004-11-23T00:06:00.000-08:00

Tak (Czech for...Ok, well, how is that? Is that ok? So, ect.)
Recently I have tried a beverage called Kofola it is an original Czech cola aka the communists' answer to Coca Cola. Well being here in the Czech Republic I thought it would be a good idea to drink like the Czechs do. Well Laura and I have given the drink a fair chance, but we have come to our conclusion. The cola has to be made with cabbage, like everything else in this country. Once you get over the slight cabbage taste there is a tiny cheese burger after taste. It first we thought it might just be because of the food we had earlier but after several attempts we have banished the drink for good. I am not a big soda drinker but man oh man I wanted a real coke so bad after that. I had to settle for Toma Cola, a "kids" soda, its not half bad. Next on the list is Tesco Lemonade cola its only 4 cents for 1.5 liters so it must be good.

Until next time, it is Czech essay writing time, this should be fun.

Louskacek

2004-11-22T23:24:00.000-08:00

This evening i attend yet another theater performance. Tonight was a Balet and in my opinion more entertaining than the Opera, but i must admit I am looking foward to David Copperfield next week. Anyways, act 1 started with all of the dancers in normal tights and leatards and finished with them in tan underware standing under a UFO? Act 2 started with a man standing in a kitchen taking off all his clothes until he was again in his underware and danced the entire act that way. The first group of girls in this act had on huge red hoop skirts that quickly found there way to cords that made the skirts dance above the girls heads,so yet more people dancing in underware. Act 3 In this act all the boys wore skirts and halfway through the lead dancer again lost clothes. The group of girls kept there clothes on but enjoyed throwing themselves to the ground. They danced, hung, and swung on there male partners and 7 foot high boxes. The girls would lay down on the box then the guys picked the box up and the girl slide hard to the stage. Then the last scence the lead was down to just underware once again and was throwing roses at a girl sliding around on the boxes in her underware. Then it was all over. It was very artistic and well done. Thats about it. I am going to have to go to the theater more often back home to see if it is just european theater that is so strange or just theater in general.

Beware of Pool Halls

2004-11-20T03:48:00.000-08:00

This evening after a nice couple games of bowling we head of to play a few games of pool. I am very new to the game of pool but thought it would be fun to test my skills. So maybe it is just me being new to the pool scene or maybe its just another fun little quirk about these wonderful European countries, but something seemed a little off to me. When we walk in all seems fairly normal, a few arcade games scattered about, few folks at the bar and in the distance, a few pool tables. Well as I walk towards the pool tables, singing quietly along to the Nelly Furtado that is playing in throughout the joint, I see a girl dancing on a pole out of the corner of my eye. Come to find out, this pool hall has strippers as well, kind of an attempt of an over all entertainment place i guess. Well the real strange part about these strippers was that for one they kept putting on clothes, which I don't really have any first hand knowledge, but i did not think that was how it was done. The other bizarre fact was the music, most of the music was slow ballads. For instance, Bryan Adams and Sting were heard very often as well as a song about children and smiles for the seasons or something. Ok well this adventure has just bewildered me to utter exhaustion, wish I could explain it a little better, but good news in the Battle of the Sexes pool matches girls came out on top 3 for 3. And by no means am i claiming much of that credit Laura Lou gets the props for that one. Goodnight

Language Barriers

2004-11-19T12:52:00.000-08:00

Alright so leave it to me to get sick in random country. But hey its another new experience. Well I have been looking for a doctor to go to all week. At first I brought along Andy (she speaks English, Czech, German, and Croatian)to help me in case I can not find an English speaker. Well it was a good idea because she understood when the hospital said they were only taking emergencies at that time. Then I found out there was an English speaking doctor in the same building as the international students office. Next day I go to find her. She is on her honeymoon or something and then it was a national holiday. So i finally get into a doctor's office by the end of the week. The nurse keeps coming out and bringing people back, everything is moving smoothly. I am the only one left and she comes out speaking Czech of course, so I give my usual response, ne mluvim cesky (I don't speak Czech). So she keeps talking in Czech asking me more questions. Then she waves me in and points to a chair. I get out an ID and insurance card because that is just a given. As she is taking to me a voice from behind a curtain ask if I speak English. I was saved, for a moment. Then they could not figure out the insurance card and wanted me to go get another card and new insurance. Then they said i could just pay it all myself but it was going to be very expensive and it would just be easier to buy a new one and save time. Which would be so wrong because they would only speak Czech and I would take another like 2 hours to fill out a form. Finally I told them I would pay all $10 on the spot without insurance at all. First problem solved. Next, all doctors do pretty much the same thing to sick patients so I followed directions well. The tricky part was telling her why I was there. Being the good student I am I looked up all my symptoms in the waiting room and handed her a sheet of paper. The next problem is to fill the medications. The voice from the curtain was still there and took me to the Lekarna to translate for me. What a nice boy, who apologized for his unfriendly country and said he loved how nice the people were in America when he studied in Colorado. Good Job Americans on being nice. The only problems I have ever had with any Czech person has all stemmed from language barriers...grrr...i wish i learned languages better.

But at the end of the day pointing and acting out what you want or need seems to do the job 99% of the time...Granted we do get Liver instead of chicken for dinner or mushroom rice when we order mashed potatoes but hey that's what makes this place so memorable.

Why it would be very hard to live on this side of the ocean forever

2004-11-16T01:02:00.000-08:00

after telling my sister i went shopping and it made me think of them she responded with MojoBarbee: hahaha.. thats sad the worst thing in the world to u reminds u of us

ok so here you are MOJO...impatient one...
StokedCaneFan: blog post time and you are on it
MojoBarbee: oh super im gonna have to go read that
MojoBarbee: i dont see it
MojoBarbee: oh ic me deary
MojoBarbee: i picked up a lil irish while u were gone

man oh man I can't wait to be home for the holidays...singing out of tune christmas carols while baking cookies and whinning about how much more we have to decorate "do we have to put it all up because then we are just going to have to take it ALL back down again, its just making us work hard twice for no reason"

Broadway: The Musical

2004-11-16T00:04:00.000-08:00

Tonight walking in from TESCO (the Czech version of super Wal-mart or Target packed full on all 5 floors) I ran into Tadeja. She was heading out to see if she cold get tickets to a sold out theater performance. I am going to miss this part of being here. Tonight was my 4th theater experience and in my 4th theater as well. Broadway: The Musical was performed, which is random songs from as you might of guessed Broadway Musicals. It started out so well singing the opening song of Hair in English. By the time Chicago and West Side story rolled around the songs were in Czech. It was very funny as always to hear music I know with words that mean nothing to me. But don't worry only the songs I would of known were in Czech everything else I had no clue about was in English. Sorry this is not a very exciting post. I have not really been doing much lately.

JEDEME BRNO JEDEME!!!!

2004-11-13T18:56:00.000-08:00

Alright, today I attended my first European football match. I must say that the game itself was only ok, but the fans are awesome. Just like at hockey games the crowd chants and cheers through the entire game with people in the front leading all the cheers and some people with drums to help as well. People bring homemade confietti and toilet paper to throw from the stands randomly and when goals are scored. So today the weather in the 30s and rainy, more or less miserable, but we stood out there for 2 hours trying to understand the Czech cheers. We ended up just putting English words that "sounded" like the Czech ones in there place. It was some what easy on a few because they were to the tune of an English song like "yellow Submarine" and "life goes on". The most exciting thing came in the second period. During half time people came around handing out balloons to all the fans. On these balloons were printed the words "F*** off Praha" so everyone blew them up and waved them around when Praha came back to the field. The true highlight was after the balloons men came around taping this firecracker looking things to the railing through out the fans. The one closest to me was placed in the center of 4 boys who were drinking and smoking but looked no older than 13. With about 5 minutes to go in the game all of this fire/sparkler things start shooting up in the air filling the stands with smoke. Then people were throwing paper as the fire is spraying everywhere. As these sparklers stop fans throughout start lighting these red flare type things that are shooting flames everywhere again. By this time I can no longer see the field and the game let alone the people 5 rows in front of me. I did how ever see the super intelligent man with the flare that chucked his still lit and flaming firecracker towards the field and into the crowd of fans. Oh I also did the European thing of purchasing the scarf to wave during cheers and when goals are scored. Ok well the result of the game was Sparta Praha 1 and FC Brno 0. Either way it sure was fun. Now its time to thaw out...

Interesting things

2004-11-12T00:35:00.000-08:00

SO earlier in the week I had the fire drill which ended up causing me to miss my British Lit class since i could not get into the building to get my books. Well today I saw the professor in town and stopped him to explain and ask for the homework. He goes over everything in his fun British way that so reminds me of the teacher in Harry Potter, but anyways, after telling me all i needed to know he says "but you really don't have to do any of that if you just want to show up to class next week that will be fine". Crazy, teachers in america never do that, i love this place.

Tonight I went to see the Opera Aida. It was very good, lots of music, singing and dancing. It was my first opera and I must addmit I have heard that it does not matter if you understand the words you can still follow the opera. I was lied to, I mean sure I knew who was talking to who and I figured out who died and when but as for the rest of the story line, nic, nothing. The opera was sung in Italian, which I expected and it was beautiful. The story was about ancient Egypt. The subtitles were in Czech and the only words I new from those were the verb to be and all its forms, the words must and can, and death, oh yeah and Aida. I think I am going to have to go to an Opera that has english titles.

Tonight I was talking to my awesome roommates back in Boone about all the fun they are having without me and "Moving On" by Weekend Excursion started playing, how said is that? oh well just sharing there story because its fun "well, we had a gray mouse in the basement, and of course we all acted like girls.. the neighbor boy came over, he couldn't find it.. so, then we called casey and he caught it with gloved hands and took it outside, evidently it only had 1 eye... not only were we scared of a mouse, but of a 1 eye mouse geez... yeah, it was probably the highlight of the week"
Man I miss those girls!!

now i must go to bed to rest up for a big day of friday classes...aka...Squash class!

Running out of room

2004-11-10T00:31:00.000-08:00

So the whole limited picture posting space on free webpages is no fun, but have no fear I have created a new one. So the rest of my pictures will be posted to this site until I run out of room again.

http://community.webshots.com/user/stokedcanefan

lessons learned

2004-11-09T18:26:00.000-08:00

In Retrospect to the weekend in Budapest...

~Plastic Wine bottles are safer than glass ones.
~Rolls of pictures are fun but should be of more than just 4 people.
and in the wise words of Jörg "you are never look drunken, but you recognize it if you speak Czech, Spanish and Engl. Mix"

Prosim POZOR!!!!! (Excuse Me DANGER!!!)

2004-11-09T11:01:00.000-08:00

Ok so in the dorms every room has this little speaker box which is used as an intercom system for the women at the front desk to tell us important things like "the key to washer machine is free" or "Joe smith you have a package at the front desk". But this morning I was woken up by the woman saying "Prosim Pozor . . ." (then a bunch of Czech I did not know). All I understood was "Excuse me! Danger!" and she kept saying it about every 15 seconds then I heard knocking on my door and people running all around. Then I saw firemen running in with hoses. SO I got dressed, got my wallet and passport and followed the crowds. It was very funny because everyone was still asleep and they never made the announcement in English and so all of the international students are all just trying to figure out if everything is going to burn to the ground or if it is a drill. This one guy came running out with his computer tower and trash bags full of clothes and then ran back in for a second load. It was pretty funny. Another guy came down with a wet towel to breathe into, when he was leaving his room the hallway was filled with smoke. He also said the fog machine was placed just outside his door. Then TV crews arrived and reports and everything. But they all spoke in Czech and so we just sat there. But one of the Czech students said she will write an email explaining what happened and send it to all the international students so I can tell you more about it later. If that is how they do fire drills that's insane but smart at the same time. All I have to say is that if there are 120 international students in one dorm who do not really speak Czech then when something like this happens find someone who does speak both to make the announcement in English so the other half of the dorm survives. Or I guess we can all study our Czech a little harder but seriously the language is ridiculous.

2004-11-09T09:21:00.000-08:00

Laura the Turtle

2004-11-09T02:39:00.000-08:00

Here is the one that got mad at me for taking so long to find my ticket

2004-11-09T02:38:00.000-08:00

Here is our little man on the Children's railway, he did not lke me taking his picture

2004-11-09T02:33:00.000-08:00

We are just so lady like! (me, andy, & laura)

A little info on Budapest

2004-11-08T21:38:00.000-08:00

First, I am not sure if this is just me being uneducated, but here is a little fact about Budapest. So the Danube river runs through the city dividing it into Buda on the west and Pest on the east. I had no idea, but nonetheless the city is terrific. I might even go as far as to say my favorite Major European City to date. Not that that says much since I have not been to that many, oh well you understand. The sightseeing highlights would be the Children's railway, the Market, church service in St. Stephens Basilica, and the Szechenyi Baths.

The children's Railway is a railway that was started during the Communist reign in Hungary. Children ages 10-14 run the railway. They do all of the work from printing, selling, and taking tickets to working the switch boards, changing the tracks, and directing the trains. At every station you can see the children salueting the trains and every cabin has its own worker. They are adorable but at the same time freighting. It was kind of creepy almost like a bad horror movie. You are riding in an old train through the woods on the mountains surrounding Budapest with little kids dressed up as adults being in charge. Well of course my pictures are not up yet but here are a few of the kids... http://www.budapestinfo.hu/images/gallery/gallery_en.phtml?imagename=R_526

The Market pretty much was just a huge building with a lot of stands like a flea market type thing. It was nice alot of interesting things such as pig and chicken heads. St. Stephen's was just a beautiful place. It had a good mix of burgandy, grey and white marble with georgous frescos, statues and alters. The service we attended had an amazing Choir to go along with the huge pipe organ. It did not even matter that the whole mass was said in Hungarian.

The Szechenyi Baths were a very interesting place. It was a huge old yellow building in the middle of a nice park. Inside the building was several small pools of varrying temperatures, a few suanas, and a steam room. Then in the center of the building outside there are there main pools. One had a center hot tub area that was surrounded by a ring of water that reminded me of Emerald point where you just go around and around in a circle real fast. That is always fun. Then throughout the pool there were random jets. On the side of one of the pools was a chess board that was taken over by a few elderly men. It wold be so cool to retire in Budapest and just come play chess in a heated pool all day. We need these things in America. You can not take pictures of the baths for people's personal saftey since all areas of the building are co-ed so here are a few pictures i found... http://www.budapestinfo.hu/images/gallery/gallery_en.phtml?imagename=B_001143

Alright well that is about it for now if anyone is thinking about studying abroad look into Budapest that would be a great place to study. Just in case you wanted my thoughts on the matter.

Finally a real entry

2004-11-03T11:41:00.000-08:00

So last Wednesday my mother, father, grandmother, and grandfather flew into Prague. Since Thursday was a holiday in the czech republic I headed on up to Prague. It really is a nice city. Way too many tourist but the buildings and the atmosphere are beautiful and fun. It was decent weather, cloudy and foggy, but not too cold and no rain. After a few days in Prague we headed down to Southern Bohemia and stayed in a little town called Cesky Krumlov. This town is just adorable. It has small winding cobble stone roads on the side of a mountain and down into the valley with the Vltava River running through it. In the summer you can go tubbing down the river as well as horse back riding, rock climbing and a ton of hiking trails in the surrounding country side. The castle is perched high on a hill with a beautiful garden located even higher on the hill. Next we took a taxi all the way to Vienna, Austria. It was great because we got to see the real country side and not just tracks. Everyone was very excited to get there passports checked at the borders into and out of the countries. Its amazing how much fun it can be to just collect stamps in your passport.
The taxi driver was very nice but did not speak any english only czech and german. So as we were getting into Vienna and were telling him where he needs to drop us off he pulls over and gets out a map. Which is not always a bad sign he was prepared so he pointed out the hotel and then expected to be taken there. We were wrong. We had to navigate for him. My dad is in the front seat with the map and only speaks english so I moved up to see if i could offer my expert translation skills. Everything is working out fine, thank goodness we went over czech direction words in my czech class. The route is all set it is simple, only 3 roads. Then we get into the city center on the main road we planned to take and about 200 meters up the road it becomes a huge sidewalk. . .ahh so thats why that part of the road is pink on the map you can not really drive on the road. Ok so now we have to make a new plan and we are in the center of the city which means lots of people, cars, and one way roads. So to make a long story short we drove around and around the same building about 8 times because everytime we wanted to turn is was one way, but have no fear we finally found the way. It only mad the 2 hour and 30 minute trip last a little over 4 hours.
Either way it was a lot of fun speaking broken czech and the driver was very nice and patient. The rest of our time in Vienna was spent walking around the city, a boat tour of the Danube river, the Melk Monastary and a horse-drawn carriage ride around the city.
Then it was back to good old Brno and a little bit of fun at the Pegas Brewery/hotel. It was very good to see my family and I hope that had a good time. Any one else who wants to come visit just let me know.

Joerg's updated link

2004-11-03T11:13:00.000-08:00

these are Joerg's pictures that he adds to but on a new link so here you go if you want to check out those.

http://service.gmx.net/mc/mufA43Q3f3GVSDuWApa9Je7ii6d35Y

Click on the GMX Media Start Center. I know its in german still. If you want to watch the pictures as a slideshow click on "Bild" and then "als Diashow ansehen".
Oh and yes he does like to steal pictures from other pages (like mine) and put them on his but we will forgive him.

Joke from Kelsey

2004-11-03T10:50:00.000-08:00

So one day a neutron walked into a bar. The bartender says hey what can I get you. He says a Rum and coke. So he drinks it and ask how much do I owe you. The bartender says (while pointing at him) " For you No charge"

So today in massage class my teacher, who does not speak english at all, comes up to me and very quickly and loudly in my ear says "Bush or Kerry" in a thick czech accent. I just gave him a strange look and he repeated the question. So then I said nerozemim (I don't understand in czech). Then al the czech people laughed and he just turned and walked away. Then the polish boys translated the english to english for me...man oh man language barriers are all a big mental game.

Plus these two events both happend the morning after all the american students were staying up with little naps to keep track of the polls closing.

my bust

2004-10-27T12:41:00.000-07:00

so i forgot yo give you the link to see the pictures...silly me

http://community.webshots.com/user/ksayabroad-date

enjoy

Prominte

2004-10-27T12:31:00.000-07:00

I am so sorry I know it has been about 2 weeks since I have posted anything but the good news is that it is because there is so much going on. I have been all over Southern Bohemia and Prague in the last two weeks, just to hit a few highlights...the home of original Budweiser Budvar, Cesky Krumlov (amazing), Prague Castle, The lagerest disco in middle Europe (5 stories of all the fun you can stand), Slavia Praha vs Sprata Praha Hockey game (oh how i have missed my hockey). The other thing that has been eating up my time is that my internet now works in my room and I have put up a bunch of my pictures for you to look out. I hope that gives you a better understanding of what i am doing over here and how awesome it all has been.

I am sorry to say that once again it is going to be a short while until my next post. I am leaving to go back to Prague to meet my Parents and Grandparents and then we are traveling to Cesky Krumlov, Vienna, Bratislava, Brno, and back to prague in 6 days. It should be a blast. Then once I get back 2 days later i am heading out to Budapest, Hungry for 3 days. I promise that i will bring back lots of stories and pictures . . .until next time.

Oh yeah and HAPPY 24th BIRTHDAY CHRISTY!!! I miss you and love you!! Enjoy your day and week as Mom.

Pictures from School

2004-10-12T18:10:00.000-07:00

Here are pictures that the international student advisor took during our trips. Sad to say that he got a new job and left for Ireland this past weekend. He will be missed but atleast we still have the pictures.

http://www.rect.muni.cz/ois/at_mu/Photogalleries

Czech language fun

2004-10-12T18:00:00.000-07:00

So everyday in czech class for the first 20 minutes or so we just ask the teacher how to say random things and phrase that we think would be good to know. For example, "Sorry I'm late", "What a shame", "I am sick" and "I am sleepy". Today just as the teacher was about to move on to the real leason, Kelsey raises her hand to ask one more question. Kelsey "umm...How would you say alien or extraterestial?" This is when our teacher gives a strange look and then just writes the word on the board. Now why that word is going to come in handy in Kelsey's everyday life here in the czech republic is beyond me but it was very funny. There happened to be two words for this in czech one being "ufono". This is when one student made the comment about ET. So it was something about what ET says "ET ufono" instead of ET phone home, maybe he was speaking czech and not some alien language. Anywho...thats the fun i am having in my czech language class.

New tricks or events

2004-10-09T10:32:00.000-07:00

So these are so random things I have done or witnessed in the last week.

Alex opening a Wine Bottle using only a shoe. (It took a few minutes but pretty impressive nonetheless)

Beer Bottles being opened only with what people had... a Lighter, a knife, a ring, another bottle... I have only attempted the lighter and it was a success

An entire bottle of Vodka being drunk straight from the bottle in McDonalds in the center of town

A cocktail in foot tall tiki-totem pole mug with an umbrella, fruit and a lit sparkler on top being drunk by a German boy

A birthday girl (Kelsey) being blindfolded and kidnapped from her room. Then she was lead downtown to a bus which took her to a city 2 hours a way and then lead all over Olomouc still blindfolded until a pretty unveiling spot revealed itself...totaling about 3 and a half hours in complete darkness...she is such a good sport

Took a tram to the end of the line and started walking until I found my class...took and hour and a half to find my squash class then learned the rules in czech-english

Sat through an hour and a half massage lecture class, which was taught in czech because the teacher does not speak a word of english

Am in a Basketball class that is also taught by a teacher who speaks no english, but its fun and I am picking up new vocab.

Had to wear plastic bags over my shoes when entering the building to go to class because I did not bring indoor shoes...Every time you enter you have to change into shoes that are only worn indoors and put your outdoor shoes in a bag or just put the bags over your feet and wear the bags around.

A Few First Time for Everything moments

2004-10-05T18:34:00.000-07:00

Last night I ate Indian food for the first time and with my fingers, which is so my style.

Watched The Simpsons on a laptop in a Pub, crazy international students.

Found out that Dungarees mean Overalls in Britain and that only expecting women wear them.

Going to my first Sports Masazi class tomorrow, I think, will let you know about the next one.

and my mind is blank for now I can only remember as far back as yesterday. . .Sorry

Lost in Slovakia

2004-10-04T12:00:00.000-07:00

So A group of about 40 International students went to Slovakia for a few days. It was amazing, by far one of my favorite things that i have done here. We stayed in small cottages at the base of a mountian in an area known as the low tatras.
On Friday we started walking up the mountain to a chair lift, thinking it was a great way to see the size of the mountians in a short amount of time. Turns out the 15 minute chairlift ride took us only half way up the mountian. When we got off the chair lift i looked up into the clouds and saw what i thought was the top of the mountian about 300 meters above me. So we started hiking on up the side of the mountian and i notice on a rock at by feet that it said 1500 m with an arrow pointing to the top. As we climb higher and higher into the clouds I start to see snow on the ground and could only see about 15 feet in front of me. We reach the top about 30 minutes later. That part of the hike was very difficult as it is hard to motivate yourself when you can't see anything and are freezing cold (the temperature went from about 45 to 20). We stopped on the top for lunch, my Gulas was great as always and we had a snowball fight.
Next our guide tells us that we have about 4 more hours to hike until we reach our campsite. Some of us were thinking about heading back down the way we came up if the following 4 hours were going to be as cold and windy as the first 30 minutes. Thankfully I convinced myself that I am only here once and it was great chance for some amazing hiking. The weather got better as did the views. Our guide was kind of making up the way back as we went and got us back to camp 5 hours later, which means we hiked about 11 or 12 miles. Some of the trail looked to be straight out of LoTR, it was crazy.
After we arrived at the camp we all got our bathing suits and went to the Thermal spas. These were huge pools of steaming hot brown water, we called a tea bath just so we wold not be to grossed out by the look of what were were swimming in. There was also a cold brown water pool that we had a ton of fun jumping back and forth in. It was exactly what our bodies needed after the long hike. The next day we visited a Castle that was very neat, looked like something out of a movie. We also got a tour of some limestone caves (that still look just like the ones in NC) and then to an old village. The mountians around the village reminded me a lot of the NC mountians and school. It was goregous, very quiet and slow paced. The sun was shinning and leaves were changing, plus i was wearing my Boone shirt. It was a great moment.

Pictures and Videos

2004-09-29T17:00:00.000-07:00

Joerg has been adding pictures to this site and since I can not get my internet to work I am going to relay on this page instead.
http://service.gmx.net/mc/WXd1AxXS1iuBok1vkgUDUFLMD7lrtQ

I know it is in German. . .if you click on the link you want to then click on GMX MediaCenter Starten. Then you can click on any of the folders and to see the pictures as slide shows go to Bild and click Als Diashow ansehen
I think you guy can figure it out.

Kromeriz buses on Holiday

2004-09-29T04:22:00.000-07:00

The town of Kromeriz is the home to a very nice Chateau and even more amazing gardens. http://www.cs-center.org/kromeriz Tuesday was a National Holiday so no classes, therefore a group of about 16 of us went to Kromeriz. We took a bus for $2 one way and then $2 for a tour of the chateau and the gardens were free. We all meet up at the bus stop around five to find a very packed bus, meaning we would stand the hour and a half ride back to Brno. Cass, Kelsey and myself thought we would be adventurous since we are only in Europe for a short time and stay to see more of the town. We went back and saw some insane chickens with feathers that looked like fur coats, a cage full of birds and two cats (still can not figure that one out) and a very hyperactive monkey. Next we got some dinner and then headed off to catch the next bus. . . Turns out that on Holidays the buses do not run as late nor as often. So after Smsing (text messaging in Europe) Joerg to have him look up bus times online we come to realize that the next bus does not leave until 4:25 am. It was about 8 or 9:00 at this time so after thinking about sleeping in a park or in the train station we did the safe, smart, girlie thing to do. . . Got a hotel room. So atleast we had some fun and did something different than planned. Arrived in Brno at 6:00 am which gave me just enough time for a nap before my 1:00 class. Europe is too much fun

Cultural Food

2004-09-27T11:24:00.000-07:00

This weekend we moved into our new dorm on the other side of town. In each room there is a "kitchen" it has a sink, a small 2x2 box frig, and 2 hot plates. Which is better than nothing so I am pleased with it. We did make our first meal in the kitchen yesterday, well i watched my first meal made in my kitchen. Irena, from Slovinia taught Cass and I how to make "pancakes" which are very thin and instead of putting syrup on them you put Nuttela and/or fruit inside, roll it up and put ice cream and whipped cream on top. If my sister Megan was here I know that she would live off of that and fried Chesse. The other thing "we" made was Kuhano Vino. Also known as Hot Wine. You take some White wine and add sugar and cloves and such and boil it. By the time it is all finished the wine taste like hot apple cider and not wine, just the way i like my wine.

As for the rest of the new dorms, I don't think you can fully understand the showering experience until you try it yourself. I am going to try my best to explain it though. So at first it looks like an actual Bathtub but really its only a 5 inch deep tub on a platform. Also on this platform a mere 6 inches above the rim of the tub is the sink. No the sink is not attached next to the tub it is attached to the tub and is actually above the tub. They use the same faucet and water knobs. There is a switch to direct the water to the sink or to the shower, which is just drapped across the sink anyways. It is very strange but it is only for 3 months.

Roomate wise. I do finally have a roomate her name is Tatyana, she is from Belarus and is an environmental chemist. Thats all i know so far.

More Pictures

2004-09-24T22:07:00.000-07:00

Yes yes I know i still don't have my pictures up and you are sick of seeing everyone else's pictures and a bunch of people you don't know in the pictures but at least this way some of the stories with names will make a little bit of sense.

This is Becca's pictures. She is from PA and is a ton of fun.
http://community.webshots.com/user/beckyhub01

Most of the pictures tell you who the people are and where they are from, she did a great job.

AMERICAN all the way!!!!

2004-09-22T15:22:00.000-07:00

So in my Czech language class we had a new teacher because our normal one was out of town for the week. This lovely new lady was from Poland and her English was questionable with a stutter. She was going around the room and we were reading the answers to our homework. When it came time for me to read my line I did my best attempt to pronounce it correctly. My teacher gives me this funny looks and says "Where are you from". Obviously I answer " America, North Carolina" and then she goes "Oh well you have a poor Russian accent." All I could do was look at the women and laugh. As did the rest of the class as they were saying why the Hell would an american girl from north carolina have a russian accent? This shows that they are only having us do the work and not really teaching us the language. I can write the language fine but speaking it is a different story. The word for water is simply Voda and I have attempted to order water and received fried potato dumpling. Any time I say any thing in Czech the person at the store tries to answer English. So I guess the lovely teacher has figured out my problem with the language ... I don't have a good Russian accent. Oh life makes so much more sense now.

Random Comments

2004-09-21T02:09:00.000-07:00

In an email from my Grandmother . . . Do not drink too much beer over there or you will get fat!!Can't wait to get over there and taste the beer myself.

A SMS from Kelsey after i ask what she is doing . . .
Eatn cottagechesse w a notecard

and that is not meaning eating and studying flashcards like i thought at first!

Flip-flops are casual but black flipflops classy

2004-09-19T23:30:00.000-07:00

so i am going to make these things a whole lot shorter so you guys don't get so sick of reading them. So this is poor structure random jibberish stories now.

All is going well. Beautiful sunny day here again. Yesterday Rahul turned 24 and Enzo turned 21. the international students had a suprise birthday party for them both, but i must say it is very hard to get 30 people to hide in an 8 X 8 Kitchenand find a reason for two guys who are getting ready to go out to dinner to come to a kitchen in the middle of the dorm. Then 27 of us went to a steak house for dinner and ended up at two tables. I of course was at the point of a triangle shaped table made to seat 7 but we fit 13 we have become a very close group now. Joerg's 23rd Birthday today. Last night some people took him to the green cat and after they paid to get in found out it was Gay night. They stayed any ways and had a good time I however went to bed early because we had big plans for today.

Today, ok short and sweet i swear I will get better at this.
Took a train to Pernštejn castle ( http://www.zamky-hrady.cz/2/pernstejn-e.htm ) where we met a Czech man that used to be a doctor in Canada and is now writing popular science novels. We had an hour before catching the train back and thought lunch would be good. we ended up litteraly running for the train one because we were not exactly sure where the train was and it was about to leave. Once we were on the train, to give me something to do I pulled out my czech flashcards. Since I can not ever pronouce english words right you can imagine how well i am doing with the czech. The train was packed and after a few cards i realized that the woman next to me was correcting me on every card and then the women across from me was telling her boyfriend to study with me because he needs to learn czech too.

Next was the theatrical production of Othello at the Narodni Divadlo v Brně (aka the people's theater of Brno) The play was ok but the theater itself was sweet. I got to seat in one of those little balconies with 2 chairs and velvet everything. I so felt like i was royalty other than the fact that I was wearing my rainbows, but come on now did you really think that just because they said not to be casual that I was going to not wear flip-flops? hey they are so classy, black goes with everything is what i have always been told.

I have become 12 again

2004-09-18T16:27:00.000-07:00

Alright, I am going to try and sum up the last few days of fun since my last story and class. Thursday night a group of us thought that bowling would be a good time. Since i had a late class I had a little bit of catching up to do before bowling. A box of Sangria did the trick. Then off we all headed to the bowling alley. This is not your everyday bowling alley. It is in a place called Boby Centrum, which has all the major sporting courts and venues for the city. For bowling they only have 4 lanes however, 2 of them were in use and one was broken. So now the 14 international students all attempt to bowl on one lane, which was the easy part compared to how hard it was to figure out european shoe sizes and then translate that into czech and then try to pay for it all at one time. This all had to take place in an hour and a half so needless to say we only bowled 4 frames each, but there was plenty of socializing, singing, and drinking going on that nobody cared.
Next we all head out to the pub below our dorm. As we are walking there we notice that a few special people have Joinked some bowling shoes (Joinked is one of the words we are teaching the germans if anyone knows any other fun amercian phrases let me know).

The next day, friday, since we don't have class Kelsey, Irina, Tadia, Joerg, Thomas, Rene, and myself go back to Boby Centrum to play some badmition. I think the last time i played was in middle school gym class and it showed. Kelsey used to play competetively in high school in Arizona and the germans, dutch and slovinians all played pretty well.

Then we went and had a picnic in the St. Peter & Paul Church Park that over looks a portion of the city. It was beautiful. We sat out in the sun playing ENKA, which is more or less the Slovinian version of UNO. After that we enjoyed some zmrzlina (ice cream) on our walk to play Czech Mini Golf. And I say Czech Mini Golf because it is not like any I have ever seen before. Once again trying to tell the people we would like to play and to pay was tricky but pointing and handing money has not failed us yet. On the first hole the first players steps on the course to putt and all of a sudden this starý muž (old man) come out yelling at us in czech. Apparently you are not allowed to step on the course you have to hit from the outside, which makes it a whole other game. Also the course is not turf it is some type of unlevel warpped rotting wood. The next trick is that not all of the holes actually have holes. For example, Hole number 12 is a hoop attached to a net that is suspended vertically about 3 feet off the ground and you have to put the ball into the net. Of course I took the stroke limit on that hole. Then the next hole was again not a hole at all but a flowered shapped bucket full of sand that you had to get the ball up a narrow ramp just so and try to lunch the ball into the bucket. Once again I took the stroke limit.

After that we went to eat at a place called INDIAN JONES, yes it is an Indiana Jones themed resturant in the czech republic. Our food was served to us on huge silver platters and there was very little light. There were Boas and lizards, as well as ancient masks and walls that crumbled when Kelssy touched them. Here is where we found out that a few of us enjoy logic problems so for the rest of the night we were sharing logic problems. The next stop was for more zmrzlina of course and then off to the upper portion of St. Peter and Paul's church. After that it was the hunt for the perfect disco. We found a place called the Crockodial, which played rap, rastafarian, and african music. And had the largest multiracial population we had seen so far. It was so crazy.

And then finally Today. Cass, Kelsey, Irina, Tadia, Arno, Annett, and myself went to a pottery festival in Kunštat. The pottery was beautiful and so was the hours bus ride out there. Oh yeah the bus ride I almost forgot. . how could i forget this. . .So we are waiting for the bus with about 15 other people and are thnking man i hope there are enough seats that we can all get on the bus. Well the bus comes and we all get on but we all had to stand. Then we got to 3 more stops where even more people are entering the bus. By the time we leave Brno, I am squeezed in between both people standing and the seats. I am also trying to eat breakfast and not fall over. This was very tricky but i manged to get it done and only elbowed some one in the head once. But the hour bus ride was not as bad as it seemed, I am getting used to all the standing, walking and crowded means of transportation.

Alright so now that I have wrote way to much I must head out to celebrate some birthdays, catch a movie and then go to a castel on sanday before heading t the theater to see Othello.

Searching for a German Virgin?

2004-09-16T18:56:00.000-07:00

Ok so here is a nifty little tradition that still exist in a small village in Germany where my friend Thomas resides.

By your 30th birthday if you are not married you must go to the town hall. Once you arrive at the town hall you must sweep the front steeps until a virgin comes and kisses you. So the reason this story came about was because Thomas' brother just turned 30 and is not married. Therefore he had the honor of sweeping the steps for four hours until they could track down a virgin. Thomas says that they live in a small village but it is hard to find virigns. They finally found a little 12 year old girl to come kiss his brother.

Now how about that for a tradition?

Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors

2004-09-16T18:50:00.000-07:00

So this afternoon I had my first Eastern European Cimema class. At first it was a little scary because I was the only one in the class when he started to teach then 7 more students came in but that was all. Ok well pretty much just watched a movie and left, but not just any old movie. The way the Professor described it was that it was a 1964 Ukrainian Romeo and Juliet. So it did not sound too bad. I must say however that it looked like it could of been romeo and Juliet story in the first 45 minutes but from then on I have no idea what i was watching. Yes they were speaking in Russian and yes there were subtitles so the professor said. The subtitles only existed in about 30% of the movie the rest i was just guessing what they were saying. Oh and don't think for one second that the subtitles were of any help. A direct quote from the subtitles would be "People drink and mess around all the time, but praise God anyways." This occured right after a naked women was running around in the field. So i guess if any one wants to know the story of Ivanka and Marichka look up Teni Zabytykh Predkov by Sergei Paradzhanov. This is going to be a looooong class because next week were are watching the best film to ever come out of the soviet union, it will only last 3 hours. I can not wait!!! Did I mention my teacher speaks very very broken english.

Creepy Czech Boy with broken english

2004-09-16T13:15:00.000-07:00

Alright so the other night Cass, Kelsey, and myself were in the floor kitchen trying to cook some pizza. Then John comes in and ask which room I live in so I say 8 (pause) 16. Then all of a sudden the creepy czech boy across the kitchen says "what you are 16 years old?" I start laughing and say " No, that is my room number." Czech boy says "Oh good because you are too developed to be 16" That is when everyone in the room just stops talking and looks at him. He tries to redem himself by saying he had the wrong word, but we all know the truth. So lesson from that night is to avoid creepy czech boys that ave naked women all over their walls.

Kelsey and Cass' pages

2004-09-15T22:04:00.000-07:00

Kelsey's
http://www.livejournal.com/users/tantalum/

Cass's
www.cassalyn.blogspot.com

Hockey Section (part 1)

2004-09-15T21:37:00.000-07:00

Due to a question about my Hockey knowledge this story is being posted.

Lst night around 9:00 pm I tell my suitemate that I am going to study and then go to bed for the night. My other instructions were to not wake me up unless something really cool was happening. So I went to my room and like the good student I am I went right to bed without touching my notes. When the morning comes I go outside to check my door (because we have a post-it note system) and I found a note. The note read Good Morning Sunshine, You missed a hockey game last night. later. Now anyone that knows me would find this story rather funny since I am a hockey freak, but due to the fact that I have only known these people for 10 days I have tried not to scare them with my vast knowledge of hockey. But come to find out my other suitemate also went to bed early and was very upset about missing the hockey. Turns out my Suitemate Luara played Ice Hockey in High School so I have found a friend to venture to hockey games with. I can not wait!!! And they will never keep us out of the hockey loop again!

Weather Update

2004-09-15T15:45:00.000-07:00

I have been asked about the weather by a bunch of people so I will give you a run down of so far. It is pretty much always sunny and upper 60s during the day. It gets down to the 50s at night but it has been great weather. It rained on sunday and is cloudy today but other than that beautiful sunshining weather. Plus we don't have any hurricanes here which is kind of a nice change for this time of year. Enjoy all the rain back home!!

Why walking is better than Trams

2004-09-15T15:38:00.000-07:00

Alright first fun story for the new blog. Kelsey, my suitemate from Arizona, is crazy but in a good way. We have our czech language class together, which is kicking my butt. Any way after class we are supposed to meet some friends at a park. They were nice enough to give us a map so we could easily find the park after class and then all go to a nice chinese dinner. So Kelsey and I decide we are not sure how far away the park is and the best way to get there would be to hop on a tram at the city's center. Our first mistake. Off we go in the right direction on this fast moving tram looking at the map to see what stop we need to get off at. Well at the third stop we have yet to see the park and figure we are close so we will just walk the rest of the way. Come to find out we past the park. By the way, one of the guys was still in class then we left and told him directions and where to meet us. At this time we get a phone call saying he is at the park and can't find us. So now we start walking back in the other direction thinking the park is just a couple of blocks away. We were wrong. Instead of a park we found the exotic part of town with all kinds of video stores and clubs. So to make a really long story short about 45 minutes later we get to the park and it is only about 5 minutes north of where we started. Thank goodness the gang knows that this kind of thing happens if you let Kelsey and I try to find some place on our own.

Well we did make it to the Chinese place a little later. I must say for Czech Chinese it was very good and the thing called Horka Zmrzlina is crazy. For non czech speakers that would be Hot Ice Cream. This is not the Fried Ice Cream you get at the local Mexican place this is a Ball of Ice Cream coated in a cookie/cake batter type thing and then covered in brandy and lit of fire. It was insane to watch but even better to eat.

German Lies

2004-09-15T13:54:00.000-07:00

Ok so I do not know many Germans but the three guys i have met here think it is a lot of fun to educate us on fake german culture.
Lie number 1. Joerg smoked in kindergarten, they even had cig breaks twice a day.
Lie number 2. Kindergarten students were given beer right before nap time.
Lie number 3. Joerg was born in Italy. Christian was born in Brazil.

oh and i am sure i will hear more in the time to come.

I have my own Blog

2004-09-14T03:10:00.000-07:00

Alright so as much i would love to let everybody else tell my stories i guess I should try not to be the lazy american and write down at least a few of my own. So now you can just keep up with me when you want to if you even want to whenever you feel like it. Oh but have no fear the really good stories will be cut and pasted when needed. Again I am still working on the photos. Since we are only in temp. dorm right now we really don't have much to work with.

The way classes are set up here is a little strange. I have three classes that start this week, one that starts next week and two i can not even registar for until next friday. The good thing about the classes here is that you only go to each class once a week and they really don't have Friday classes and as of now I am not in any monday classes either. So i am enjoying my 4 day weekend and 3 day work week.

Another fun fact about this city is that every night people find some reason to go out. For example, Monday night a group of us went to a Mexican disco to take Salsa Lessons in czech. Then because we had just learned to dance we had to go try our moves at a place called the green cat. It is a lot of fun when you get so many people from all over the world together in one place because all of the cultures start to blend. Another example. Going back home after the discos we had people singing German walking songs, Finnish drinking songs, and Indian Chants. Oh and don't think that just because all 15 of us get on a packed bus that is shuts them up. Oh now they like the vigor of the bus and start dancing again.

Again I wish there was a better way to share all of this with you all but oh well. so pick what you want enjoy.