I am TOO tired for Prague!
Well at least tonight. These intensive Czech classes have been quite the pickle. I see why they are neccesary for being here in Prague but they also infringe on my desire to go out. Let's put it this way: You are the only man left in the world. You are mega-horny. There's a girl (or guy, transsexual,...dog, whatever). Sounds great, right? WRONG. She is fish from the waist down. What do you do? That's the kind of predicament I'm in in a very irrelevant analogy.
Anyways, I feel like everyone in Machova, and probably all of Osadni and Slezska are going out tonight and here I am writing a rousing post on my blog. Exciting! I really wish I were out though. Errbody is at the Peach Pit or somewhere in Old Town. I, however, can see myself just sitting there silent not talking to anyone and wish I was in bed (which is slightly how I feel right now, but I love you all so much that I'm updating this for all two readers of this blog). I mean, in that situation, it's pretty much a rape/rob/molest/harm invite. Hell, who needs a roofy (or is roofie?) when I'm this tired. They could drag me away into a shady tinted-window van and I don't think I'd put up a fight. At least I'd be able to lay down in there.
But yeah. Czech classes are pretty intense. I can't do that "heecchhh" sound from the back of my throat. You know, that sound when you're about to spit something out from the back of your throat. I also find it really hard to roll my Rs in the middle of words. I can roll my Rs regularly, but when you throw it in the middle of a word that's just too much for my tongue to handle. I'm hoping the rolling of Rs isn't too important because if it is, I'm screwed. But I guess I can have some solace in the fact that if I order a cake and get a punch in the face instead, I'll know why. Anyways, Czech classes are over for now, but I'm definitely interested in looking in to just going to the Czech classes to sit in; I figure if I'm here for four months, I might as well try my best to learn the language.
So days and days of waking up semi-early around 9AM reached its climax (yeah, that's right--wakeup times can reach climax....unlike your Mom. HEY OH!) this morning when most everyone woke up godawful early to make it to the NYU Center to signup for the overnight and day trips. I wasn't too worried; a lot of the people wanted the spa overnight trip (and by 'people' I mean people with vaginas) and lots of other people wanted to the trip to Fasanky for Czech Mardi Gras (and by 'other people' I mean people with a dangly non-vaginal thing between their legs). We thought signups started at 8:30AM but really it was 8AM so we were a little panicky. But it all ended up okay; I got the overnight trip I wanted. It's a trip to Olomouc where we get to go to museums and look at a college town in Moravia and stuff. Sounds pretty ballin. The daytrip I got was not my first choice; I really wanted to go to Snezka and hike the tallest mountain, but I guess it wasn't in the cards for me. Now I'll just have to pick off the people ahead of me on the waitlist to get to go. Anyways, I ended up getting to go to Kutna Hora which is nothing to bitch about. I also got to sign up for the overnight trip to Hlinsko where I get to hangout with some highschool kids and live with a host-family. I'm pretty excited!
But yeah, Prague has been good so far. I finished my first beer today! Not that that is something hella impressive but on the Patrick-meter it's like building a rocket. And then flying that rocket to a newly discovered planet, only to find that it is the next inhabitable earth and then usurping all power of governance over this planet. Yeah...
So yeah, classes start on Monday and I'm pretty excited. I really hope I won't have to drop my Czech Art and Architecture class, but we'll see how things go I guess.
Well, as I said, I'm incredibly tired. So bye!
Na Shledanou,
P
*Via Audio-Developing Active People
Friday, January 23, 2009
Monday, January 19, 2009
I will sing along from another country
I LOVE PRAGUE.
At least so far.
Well, I kind of suck at updating this, but I am always tired and have been busy with orientation stuff so cut me a break.
I guess I'll start off with my last couple of days in London. First, let me say that Google Maps is a mega deceiving bitch. I thought the bed and breakfast I booked for after Dean's Circle left London was really close. But I had to drag my 75+ lbs. of luggage up several long blocks until I got there. My arms were shaking and I was out of breath and slightly moist. It was way too early in the morning to be any of those things.
Anyways, the first day was pretty sad and boring. I didn't know what to do and tried to nap but ended up going back to the British Museum for a third time. What can I say; it was an awesome museum. Where else can you see part of the Parthenon and the Rosetta Stone in one place? It was pretty badass and had to take it all in, and I mean ALL.
The next day I went to the National Portrait Gallery for about three hours. It was pretty spectacular. The portraits were really awesome and had lots of artpieces all about mythology and stuff which I personally find super interesting. There were a lot of little British kids around drawing the pieces for school and stuff which was a little annoying. Can't they see I'm trying to enjoy the musuem? Stupid kids. So effing inconsiderate. All of them.
Part of the reason I spent so long at the Gallery was that I was trying to find the Annie Leibovitz exhibit. I finally found it when I was actually leaving the gallery. The admission was a little pricey. The museum as a whole is free but they charged a 11 pound admission for the AL exhibit. I added another two pounds to the price to donate, because I ain't no Scrooge. I give my money for all sorts of good causes: art, museums, transients on the street I sleep with in exchange for money--I do it all.
The AL exhibit was amazing. She's super talented and I didn't know she was with Susan Sontag, who I read a lot about in my Gender class. So it was a good wrap up to my trip in London. I went to dinner...by myself, and actually talked to a local while I ate. Oh yeah, I ate at Wagamama--a recommendation from my friend Alex who spent a lot of time in London. It was pretty good Japanese food. Pretty much the rest of my time was packing up and waking up at 4AM to get to Heathrow to fly to Prague.
Oh and on a super important note; London has the best chips (or should I say crisps) in the world. Oh my god. I ate three big bags of chips in two days. It was bad. I'm sure my diabetes-prone body was crying out in pain, but I didn't care. I forced them in my mouth (that's what she said) and kept swallowing (that's what she said, too...if she weren't swallowing. Hey oh!). I had two bags of sweet balsamic vinegar and carmelized onion flavor and a sweet thai chili flavor. I'm sure they were probably heavily coated with nicotine or crack because I couldn't stop. I thought about them all the time. MMM. I paired them with Digestives, too. I was super healthy in London as you can see.
Well, anyways. I ended up flying to Prague with a lot of people from NYU who had a connecting flight in London. It was slightly awkward but we landed and kind of got to know each other as we tried to navigate the super Czechy airport. Oh yeah, and I forgot to mention that I think my stewardess on my BA flight to Prague was a transvestite. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I was confused. She had a deeper voice, muscular arms, and when she handed me my drink she kind of had manhands. I was slightly confused...but in a good way...if you know what I mean. HEH HEH HEH.
But we boarded a bus, but not before people's carts were stuck in the road and buses and cars h onked at us. It was a little scary. I'm sure the Czechs love us. It was quite a long ride to the airport but we got to our dorm, Machova. Again there was a lack of elevator access. It was about enough for a person and maybe their luggage if they were lucky. So I ended lugging my stuff up the stairs once again. If Europe had comment cards, you can guess what I'd say: get some damn elevators or some indentured servants to carry it up there for me.
I explored the dorms a bit and stuff. Our room is really nice and the view from our top story terrace is absolutely amazing. I love Machova. Our first day people were pretty jetlagged, but being the badass I am, after spending a week in London I was adjusted to the time. I tried to put on a front that I was fine, but I was actually pretty tired since I only got four hours of sleep before I left for Heathrow.
We hung around the dorms and then went to dinner at this pizza restaurant with all sorts of pizza that seemed to get a little more different as the night went on. We had cheese pizza then ham and mushrooms then chicken and corn then a zucchini-ish one. It was good but I was ready to die from cheese-overload (seriously, I think dairy was running through my veins; you probalbly could've milked my nipples Meet the Parents style).
After that, I was dead tired and went back to Machova and slept.
The next day we went to campus to explore and stuff. The transit system here is weird. It's like the honor system. You have to get your ticket stamped but there's no like barricade that blocks you from going into the subway area so if you don't get it stamped you can still go in. But if you get caught by police then you get slapped with a fine. So it's pretty risky.
Anywho, we pretty much just looked around Tesco, a big fatass superstore with everything. And we looked around Old Town Square and found our way home; I was impressed. We went to a restaurant called Louis Armstrong and I had my first beer. It tasted like fizzy, nutty flavored pee. I might've gotten buzzed, which is not a good sign because I only drank like a little over half of it. Sigh.
Today we had our first Czech lessons. Let me just say Czech is ridiculously hard to pronounce. I hope the locals don't mind me being super horrible at speaking their language. Well, they should be used to ignorant Americans by now I should hope. We had a really interesting lecture by a Czech journalist, too. I fell asleep, but only because the room was like a womb; it was warm and made me feel so comfortable.
We then went on a ridiculously long tour of Old Town Square. It was really interesting, but soul-piercingly cold. It was pretty bad.
Afterwards, I went with Teresa to exchange money and stuff and trammed it back to Machova but not before being a couple of fatass and buying a bag of chips, some pastries, chocolate, and crackers to munch on before dinner.
Went to dinner at this restaurant...I think called U Dedka (means old man). It was pretty good. There were a couple of dogs walking around and a lot of smoke, but oh well. I got to know my dormmates. I want Toni to bring us to Greece; he apparently might go for Easter. Woo! I'm packing myself in his suitcase.
The food was good and cheap. I had Gnocchi with spinach and chicken, some sparkling water, and hot raspberries with ice cream all for about ten dollars.
But that's about it so far. Oh yeah, one of the RAs I swore was Asian which I thought was cool since I've probably only seen like two Asians here (besides mini-China in throngs of tourists).
Anyways.
Cau,
P
*Playradioplay-Some Crap About the Furniture
At least so far.
Well, I kind of suck at updating this, but I am always tired and have been busy with orientation stuff so cut me a break.
I guess I'll start off with my last couple of days in London. First, let me say that Google Maps is a mega deceiving bitch. I thought the bed and breakfast I booked for after Dean's Circle left London was really close. But I had to drag my 75+ lbs. of luggage up several long blocks until I got there. My arms were shaking and I was out of breath and slightly moist. It was way too early in the morning to be any of those things.
Anyways, the first day was pretty sad and boring. I didn't know what to do and tried to nap but ended up going back to the British Museum for a third time. What can I say; it was an awesome museum. Where else can you see part of the Parthenon and the Rosetta Stone in one place? It was pretty badass and had to take it all in, and I mean ALL.
The next day I went to the National Portrait Gallery for about three hours. It was pretty spectacular. The portraits were really awesome and had lots of artpieces all about mythology and stuff which I personally find super interesting. There were a lot of little British kids around drawing the pieces for school and stuff which was a little annoying. Can't they see I'm trying to enjoy the musuem? Stupid kids. So effing inconsiderate. All of them.
Part of the reason I spent so long at the Gallery was that I was trying to find the Annie Leibovitz exhibit. I finally found it when I was actually leaving the gallery. The admission was a little pricey. The museum as a whole is free but they charged a 11 pound admission for the AL exhibit. I added another two pounds to the price to donate, because I ain't no Scrooge. I give my money for all sorts of good causes: art, museums, transients on the street I sleep with in exchange for money--I do it all.
The AL exhibit was amazing. She's super talented and I didn't know she was with Susan Sontag, who I read a lot about in my Gender class. So it was a good wrap up to my trip in London. I went to dinner...by myself, and actually talked to a local while I ate. Oh yeah, I ate at Wagamama--a recommendation from my friend Alex who spent a lot of time in London. It was pretty good Japanese food. Pretty much the rest of my time was packing up and waking up at 4AM to get to Heathrow to fly to Prague.
Oh and on a super important note; London has the best chips (or should I say crisps) in the world. Oh my god. I ate three big bags of chips in two days. It was bad. I'm sure my diabetes-prone body was crying out in pain, but I didn't care. I forced them in my mouth (that's what she said) and kept swallowing (that's what she said, too...if she weren't swallowing. Hey oh!). I had two bags of sweet balsamic vinegar and carmelized onion flavor and a sweet thai chili flavor. I'm sure they were probably heavily coated with nicotine or crack because I couldn't stop. I thought about them all the time. MMM. I paired them with Digestives, too. I was super healthy in London as you can see.
Well, anyways. I ended up flying to Prague with a lot of people from NYU who had a connecting flight in London. It was slightly awkward but we landed and kind of got to know each other as we tried to navigate the super Czechy airport. Oh yeah, and I forgot to mention that I think my stewardess on my BA flight to Prague was a transvestite. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I was confused. She had a deeper voice, muscular arms, and when she handed me my drink she kind of had manhands. I was slightly confused...but in a good way...if you know what I mean. HEH HEH HEH.
But we boarded a bus, but not before people's carts were stuck in the road and buses and cars h onked at us. It was a little scary. I'm sure the Czechs love us. It was quite a long ride to the airport but we got to our dorm, Machova. Again there was a lack of elevator access. It was about enough for a person and maybe their luggage if they were lucky. So I ended lugging my stuff up the stairs once again. If Europe had comment cards, you can guess what I'd say: get some damn elevators or some indentured servants to carry it up there for me.
I explored the dorms a bit and stuff. Our room is really nice and the view from our top story terrace is absolutely amazing. I love Machova. Our first day people were pretty jetlagged, but being the badass I am, after spending a week in London I was adjusted to the time. I tried to put on a front that I was fine, but I was actually pretty tired since I only got four hours of sleep before I left for Heathrow.
We hung around the dorms and then went to dinner at this pizza restaurant with all sorts of pizza that seemed to get a little more different as the night went on. We had cheese pizza then ham and mushrooms then chicken and corn then a zucchini-ish one. It was good but I was ready to die from cheese-overload (seriously, I think dairy was running through my veins; you probalbly could've milked my nipples Meet the Parents style).
After that, I was dead tired and went back to Machova and slept.
The next day we went to campus to explore and stuff. The transit system here is weird. It's like the honor system. You have to get your ticket stamped but there's no like barricade that blocks you from going into the subway area so if you don't get it stamped you can still go in. But if you get caught by police then you get slapped with a fine. So it's pretty risky.
Anywho, we pretty much just looked around Tesco, a big fatass superstore with everything. And we looked around Old Town Square and found our way home; I was impressed. We went to a restaurant called Louis Armstrong and I had my first beer. It tasted like fizzy, nutty flavored pee. I might've gotten buzzed, which is not a good sign because I only drank like a little over half of it. Sigh.
Today we had our first Czech lessons. Let me just say Czech is ridiculously hard to pronounce. I hope the locals don't mind me being super horrible at speaking their language. Well, they should be used to ignorant Americans by now I should hope. We had a really interesting lecture by a Czech journalist, too. I fell asleep, but only because the room was like a womb; it was warm and made me feel so comfortable.
We then went on a ridiculously long tour of Old Town Square. It was really interesting, but soul-piercingly cold. It was pretty bad.
Afterwards, I went with Teresa to exchange money and stuff and trammed it back to Machova but not before being a couple of fatass and buying a bag of chips, some pastries, chocolate, and crackers to munch on before dinner.
Went to dinner at this restaurant...I think called U Dedka (means old man). It was pretty good. There were a couple of dogs walking around and a lot of smoke, but oh well. I got to know my dormmates. I want Toni to bring us to Greece; he apparently might go for Easter. Woo! I'm packing myself in his suitcase.
The food was good and cheap. I had Gnocchi with spinach and chicken, some sparkling water, and hot raspberries with ice cream all for about ten dollars.
But that's about it so far. Oh yeah, one of the RAs I swore was Asian which I thought was cool since I've probably only seen like two Asians here (besides mini-China in throngs of tourists).
Anyways.
Cau,
P
*Playradioplay-Some Crap About the Furniture
Sunday, January 11, 2009
All We Need Is a Little Bit of Momentum
Wooo, man it's been way too long (that's what she said....?....!)!
So here I am in London. I'm having mixed reactions to being here.
On one hand, it's damn beautiful and it's just pretty cool to be in a completely different environment. On the other, less attractive, arthiritisty hand is the fact that London (pretty much)= European NYC.
Let me put it this way: NYC is a slutty, caked-on make-up kinda gal. London on the other hand is a much more sophisticated whore. She'll let you buy her dinner first, unlike that skanky NYC. As a result, London is fun, but a little more expensive than the 'fun' you can have with NYC (eh, get my drift, eh eh?).
Anways yeah. London is cool, but not the experience I had anticipated.
First off, I'm just constantly tired. I think it might be the jetlag still. I literally changed three time zones within two days. I went from Seattle to Jersey to London within Wednesday and Thursday and it kinda killed me. Then Dean's Circle has these grand plans of constant museum visits and walking tours, which means my sleeptime is being totally gangraped by London culture.
So after getting off of the plane around 9AM local London time, we go through customs. The customs lady was a little rude. She asked me why I was going to London. I answered saying "for school" and she was like "...school...?" I don't know what she had against me going to London for a school trip. Jeez. Not like I was going to use that bomb in my suitcase IN London. Probably just somewhere else.
Afterwards we took a coach bus to our residence hall, passing by these horses that totally looked like cows. No joke. Oh, and we totally passed this billboard just asking for a 'that's what she said' joke; it was a girl about to blow a dandelion. Man, London, can you get more sexual?
The bus ride was quite long and everyone seemed like they had been roofied, because for the most part they were. They shouldn't have been sleeping on the plane. But seriously, everyone was exhausted from traveling. I personally didn't sleep at all on the plane because I was watching TV. I watched four episodes of CSI, and episode of Without a Trace, an episode of The Big Bang Theory, and an episode of House (in which a girl thought she pooped herself but really diarrhead a lot of blood). I also sat next to an Irish lady. She was really cool and even burped really loud. I also sat next to a Middle Eastern man who was a little halitosis-y but really nice as well. I didn't know why I was stuck in the middle of two random people and not any other Dean's Circle kids but whatever.
Anyways, we got to the residence hall to check in, and realized that our residence hall has NO elevators. I had to lug my fatass suitcase up lots of flights of stairs. I was sweating like crazy and breathing hella hard like I had just had crazy sex. Unfortunately that wasn't the real reason. I was convinced that I might just have asthma or be overly obese or that possibly someone may have snuck an asthmatic fatty in my suitcase because that thing was damn heavy.
But yeah. London has been pretty fun so far, despite the lack of prudency our activities have to our research topic of Darwin. So far we've visited the Museum of Natural History, taken a bus/walking tour of Central London and Westminister Abbey, saw the show Blood Brothers, and went to the London Aquarium and the Museum of Garden History. The latter three were the worst of the bunch. Blood Brothers was a tragic story...but very comical at the same time. Maybe there are some cultural things I don't get, but when a Twilight Zone-esque guy with a weird voice sings the actual goings-on in the play like you're dumb and aren't watching the show yourself makes an exorbitant amount of appearances, it gets to be a bit much. Plus the touch of 80s synthesizers just makes THAT much better. Oh boy, yeah it does. The Museum of Garden History. I can't think of a more boring thing a museum could be about. It related very little to Darwin and the garden was nothing that spectacular. The art exhibit wasn't much to look at either. The only things that were entertaining were some of the paintings and illustrations, but for most part, most everything was garden tools--evolution of the lawnmower...or a Veggie-Lamb (a plant people thought was a fusion of a lamb and a vegetable haha)...or a cucumber straightener (AKA the most phallic thing ever (AKA the early horny farmer's wife's sextoy)). The Aquarium just plain sucked. It was still under construction and they make it sound gigantic by saying there are 15 zones in the entire thing. We were able to walk through it in about 40 minutes. The zones, needless to say weren't more than a few steps or something. As my friend put it, it was kind of like walking into someone's house that was a little obsessed with fishtanks (mostly because the tanks were low to the ground and open-air. If that's not a bad idea, I don't know what is. You know some dumbass kid is going to starty playing in it, and next thing you know the kid is drowning or the fishes have been fondled into oblivion). But the view of Big Ben and the London Eye (which, fyi, we don't get to ride because it's under construction GAH! I hate my life!).
So yeah, life is good. London is fun, and I'm hoping to have a good rest of the week here. Other than being crazy tired, London, akthough not the abroad experience I had wanted, is still pretty baller.
WEB BY!
Patrick
*The Hush Sound-Momentum
So here I am in London. I'm having mixed reactions to being here.
On one hand, it's damn beautiful and it's just pretty cool to be in a completely different environment. On the other, less attractive, arthiritisty hand is the fact that London (pretty much)= European NYC.
Let me put it this way: NYC is a slutty, caked-on make-up kinda gal. London on the other hand is a much more sophisticated whore. She'll let you buy her dinner first, unlike that skanky NYC. As a result, London is fun, but a little more expensive than the 'fun' you can have with NYC (eh, get my drift, eh eh?).
Anways yeah. London is cool, but not the experience I had anticipated.
First off, I'm just constantly tired. I think it might be the jetlag still. I literally changed three time zones within two days. I went from Seattle to Jersey to London within Wednesday and Thursday and it kinda killed me. Then Dean's Circle has these grand plans of constant museum visits and walking tours, which means my sleeptime is being totally gangraped by London culture.
So after getting off of the plane around 9AM local London time, we go through customs. The customs lady was a little rude. She asked me why I was going to London. I answered saying "for school" and she was like "...school...?" I don't know what she had against me going to London for a school trip. Jeez. Not like I was going to use that bomb in my suitcase IN London. Probably just somewhere else.
Afterwards we took a coach bus to our residence hall, passing by these horses that totally looked like cows. No joke. Oh, and we totally passed this billboard just asking for a 'that's what she said' joke; it was a girl about to blow a dandelion. Man, London, can you get more sexual?
The bus ride was quite long and everyone seemed like they had been roofied, because for the most part they were. They shouldn't have been sleeping on the plane. But seriously, everyone was exhausted from traveling. I personally didn't sleep at all on the plane because I was watching TV. I watched four episodes of CSI, and episode of Without a Trace, an episode of The Big Bang Theory, and an episode of House (in which a girl thought she pooped herself but really diarrhead a lot of blood). I also sat next to an Irish lady. She was really cool and even burped really loud. I also sat next to a Middle Eastern man who was a little halitosis-y but really nice as well. I didn't know why I was stuck in the middle of two random people and not any other Dean's Circle kids but whatever.
Anyways, we got to the residence hall to check in, and realized that our residence hall has NO elevators. I had to lug my fatass suitcase up lots of flights of stairs. I was sweating like crazy and breathing hella hard like I had just had crazy sex. Unfortunately that wasn't the real reason. I was convinced that I might just have asthma or be overly obese or that possibly someone may have snuck an asthmatic fatty in my suitcase because that thing was damn heavy.
But yeah. London has been pretty fun so far, despite the lack of prudency our activities have to our research topic of Darwin. So far we've visited the Museum of Natural History, taken a bus/walking tour of Central London and Westminister Abbey, saw the show Blood Brothers, and went to the London Aquarium and the Museum of Garden History. The latter three were the worst of the bunch. Blood Brothers was a tragic story...but very comical at the same time. Maybe there are some cultural things I don't get, but when a Twilight Zone-esque guy with a weird voice sings the actual goings-on in the play like you're dumb and aren't watching the show yourself makes an exorbitant amount of appearances, it gets to be a bit much. Plus the touch of 80s synthesizers just makes THAT much better. Oh boy, yeah it does. The Museum of Garden History. I can't think of a more boring thing a museum could be about. It related very little to Darwin and the garden was nothing that spectacular. The art exhibit wasn't much to look at either. The only things that were entertaining were some of the paintings and illustrations, but for most part, most everything was garden tools--evolution of the lawnmower...or a Veggie-Lamb (a plant people thought was a fusion of a lamb and a vegetable haha)...or a cucumber straightener (AKA the most phallic thing ever (AKA the early horny farmer's wife's sextoy)). The Aquarium just plain sucked. It was still under construction and they make it sound gigantic by saying there are 15 zones in the entire thing. We were able to walk through it in about 40 minutes. The zones, needless to say weren't more than a few steps or something. As my friend put it, it was kind of like walking into someone's house that was a little obsessed with fishtanks (mostly because the tanks were low to the ground and open-air. If that's not a bad idea, I don't know what is. You know some dumbass kid is going to starty playing in it, and next thing you know the kid is drowning or the fishes have been fondled into oblivion). But the view of Big Ben and the London Eye (which, fyi, we don't get to ride because it's under construction GAH! I hate my life!).
So yeah, life is good. London is fun, and I'm hoping to have a good rest of the week here. Other than being crazy tired, London, akthough not the abroad experience I had wanted, is still pretty baller.
WEB BY!
Patrick
*The Hush Sound-Momentum
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