Prague!

Prague What a city! I had a phenomenal weekend in Prague! One of the neatest cities in Europe! We left Thursday night and got back a few hours ago. We took a train to the airport, got on our flight through Wizz Air, about a 1.4 hour flight, took a cab to our hostel and than the adventure began. At the airport though we had to take out money in crowns. I took out 2500 crown, which you would think is so much, but in reality it is nothing. It gave us 1000 crowns. I couldn't believe that I was holding a 1000 "dollar" bill. But in Prague, 1000 crowns is nothing.


We arrived at our hostel at about 7. I was expecting an ugly small smelly hostel, but it looked just like my apartment here. There were two huge rooms, one with 3 beds and a little kitchen and another with 5 beds.


The bathroom smelled horrific and there was only one for 8 people, but it didn't bother us that much. We really needed another mirror to get ready because there was only one in the bathroom, so note to self is bring a portable mirror next time I stay at a hostel. I was nervous about using the hostels sheets/towels/pillow, but they were perfectly fine. The bed was really comfortable as well. I didn't feel like we were staying in a hostel. I felt clean and safe. We got ready quickly and headed over to Beer Factory which is a bar located in the center of Prague Wenceslav Square. It was so cool, each table had a keg and you poured however many glasses you wanted. The girls ate dinner and drank beer all night, until the boys showed up to celebrate Danny (Blinky's) birthday at midnight. After midnight, there were some crazy Europeans dancing with us and making fools of themselves, but it was very entertaining. We were going to go to another bar for Danny's bday, but we decided to just go home and rest up for the next day. We were able to sleep in till about eleven which means we got the most sleep yet abroad! It was fantastic!

The next day we got up and met the other girls staying in the hostel downstairs. We were told to find this bagel place called Bohemian Bagel to eat lunch. All 17 of us went on a walk through all of Prague city to find this place. It was amazing! There were so many choices of bagles/sandwiches/pastries/salads etc. I decided to get the grilled vegetables on a bagel sandwich. It was heaven! And somewhat cheap, well I am not sure, but it seemed like it in crowns haha.


After our fantatsic bagels, we went to meet up with our tour guide for a "free tour." It wasnt actually a free tour because he basically begged up for tip money, but o well it was worth it! It was a three hour tour all over Prague. We started in Old Town Square which is the oldest and most important square in Prague. It has so many historical buildings such as the Old Town City Hall, the Astronomical Clock, St. Nicholas Church, and other buildings with various architectural styles such as cubism. We then walked around New Town Square which was founded by Charles IV in 1348. It consists of many shops, hotels, restaurants, cafes, and food stands which attracts tourists, especially us. There is SUBWAY and STARBUCKS in Prague, so of course we had to get them! As bad as this sounds, I missed my Starbucks coffee and turkey sandwich. Oh I forgot to mention. Prague was freezing, especially during our 3 hour tour OUTSIDE. Our feet literally froze off that I could barely walk on them. After walking for about 1.5 hours, we were able to take a break, and of course we went back to Bohemian Bagel to warm up. Then we went to the Jewish Quarter of Prague which was probably the coolest and most interesting part of the tour for me. The Jewish Quarter contains the remains of Prague's former Jewish Ghetto. We were able to see the Old Jewish cemetery, which is the oldest surviving Jewish cemetery in the World. People had to be buried on top of each other because there was lack of space. There are about 12 layers and over 12,000 gravestones. Around 100,000 people are buried there. We also saw the oldest working synagoge in Europe, the Staronová synagóga) and the Pinkas Synagogue which serves as a memorial hall to the Jewish Czech victims of the Nazis. All of their names are inscribed on the walls in this synagogue for memory. I was amazed and shocked at what I was seeing and learning about. I never knew the side to the story about the Holocaust and Jewish Czech people until the tour. History amazes me.



We continued on our tour for another hour and froze. It was finally over and we were relieved. I cannot described to you how cold my body/feet were, it was unbearable. We basically ran back to our hostel for dinner and to warm up. From 5-7 at the hostel, each person gets a free beer, so we drank and talked until we found a place to eat dinner. We decided that in each country we visit, we are going to splurge on a big dinner and have a traditional home cooked meal. We all got a typical Czech dinner and had some pancakes/apple pie for dessert! AMAZING!!! Dinner made us so full, but we had to rush back get ready and start going out and meet the guys for Danny's bday. We met them at a local bar, which we were then kicked out of. Stupid Americans. The bars in Prague were disgusting. You could barely breathe and see because of all the smoke! Then a few of us decided to go to an underground club/bar called Cross Club. Omg was it an experience. I was exposed to very type of drug, alcohol, and cigarette. I was disgusted. But it was definitely something I will remember. I am not really sure how to explain the scene I was in, but my clothes smelled so bad that I took a shower right when I got home. Smoking is EVERYWHERE in Prague!

After going to bed at 430am, we got up at 930am to go to a cute breakfast place that was also recommended. It was my first time having eggs abroad, and they were delicious. The food in Europe is so good! We decided today to walk the streets of Prague on our own. We first stopped to see the John Lennon Wall which is graffiti and lyrics from Beatles songs all over this random wall. Wow! It was unreal. We managed to take about 100 pictures there, the art is great backgrounds to pictures! We then walked to the Castle. The Prague Castle, is the most significant Czech monument and cultural places in the Czech Republic. It is the largest castle complex in the world! At the top, you can see all of Prague! Just like the Eiffel Tower in Paris and the Vatican in Rome! Since we woke up early, we were exhausted and hungry and got Subway for dinner. Typical Americans! We went back and had time to relax/hang out for a few hours. My hostel talked/got ready and went upstairs after a while to hang out with the other girls.



We decided that our last night in Prague should be our craziest, so we went to a 5 story club right on the river. It was 120 crown for cover, which is probably a lot, but it was definitely worth the money. Each floor had a theme to their music. We hit all 5 floors, but enjoyed the 90's music floor the most even though it was unbelievably hot! They played great 90's music, brought back some great Middle School Memories. Of course, when I got home from the club I immediately took a shower!

Today was just a travel day. We managed to take a subway, bus, plane, train, and tram all in one day! Sorry if this blog is so long, but I needed to update everyone on my fantastic and crazy weekend in Prague! Now I need to get some work done!

Ciao
-Marisa

Prague Tomorrow!

Today was an uneventful day. We met one of our coordinators downstairs of our apartment to walk to a university of Italian students to do an event with them. Our Italian friends go to Roma Tre University, which is about a 40 minute walk from our apartments. Instead of interacting with specific Italian students, we talked about how our schools and education systems are way different. The school I go to, Leonardo Di Vinci is a language school where Americans go. The University we went to is called Roma 3. The school system is very different here. Roma 3 is equivalent to college-level in the United States. Italian children, much like the United States children are in elementary school from age 6-11. From there students move on to middle school and stay there until they are 16. Up until this point all their education has been free. Students who wish to further their education and continue to high school must pass an administered exam. Students do not have to attend this level of school, but if they do they remain at this level for five years until they are 19 years old. At this level education is no longer free. Unlike the United States where you apply for college and pick your major when you get there, in Italy you have to decide what profession you want to go into at the age of 16 because you apply to sceondaria superiore accordingly. There are designated schools to your professional field. After completing these years of school students are required to take another exam in order to receive their diploma, like in the United States, provides for social mobility and is associated with prestige and opportunity. We visited Roma 3 because we're going to be paired up with Italian students this semester. We will meet 3-4 times this semester for a few hours. The goal of this exchange program is to have us interact with italian students to better understand what their life is like here, and vice versa.

After Roma Tre, we had to walk all the way back to school. We were 40 minutes away from our apartments and in the opposite direction of school which means it took over an hour to get to Italian class. We had to walk the whole way basically because there was a strike today. The strike is where all public transportation is closed for 24 hours. I guess the workers of transportation do this every month in order to get more money. It hasn't work, and is very inconvenient for the people of Rome, but there is nothing we can do. Somehow, the tram was running every so often so we hoped on it and made it to Italian class 10 minutes later. Since we are going to Prague tomorrow, we are missing 2 classes. 29/32 of us are going to Prague so we figured that they would cancel class because we are allowed to have absences, but that is not the case. We are kinda in trouble and will never all travel in a pack again, but it will be well worth it!

We only had Italian today, so my friend Kim and I ran some errands after class. I got a new pair of sunglasses, bargained from 10 euro to 6! Then we went to an Internet Point to print out our boarding passes. It costs 2.60 euro to be on the Internet for 15 minutes. How ridiculous! And it costs .50euro to print a piece of paper. All of our big assignments need to be typed and they expect us to print everything, but that is going to be so time consuming and expensive! We better be able to email our assignments otherwise I will not be happy. We went to the grocery store and the train station to check what time we need to get a train to make our flight tomorrow. At the station were 2 homeless people sitting by the time sheet. They SMELLED so BAD! I barely could breathe and my eyes started to tear. I felt so dirty. On our way home we stopped inside this coffee shop and bought a pastry. We thought it was filled with chocolate, but it was nugget flavor we think. It was good, but not what we were expecting. But hey we had to try our first pastry someday. We came back and decided to go on a quick run. It was my first work out since the states, and it was good! It was dark out so we didn't go long, but we plan to run more often now. It felt so good to clear my head and just run!

Some people are going out tonight, but I have Layers of Rome at 930 in the morning, and I do not want to be late for this class with the scary teacher. Our flight to Prague tomorrow is at 430 and we come back at like 4 on Sunday. I do not know much about Prague except that it is pretty, has castles, and is cheap, but I am excited to learn more and be educated! I will be staying in my first hostel this weekend. Our hostel seems like it's going to be in a good location and near a lot of places to walk to. It also give us free amenities such as happy hour from 5-7, free wifi, free entry to a topless bar, etc! Haha. I am a little nervous to stay in a hostel, but I am with seven other girls so I think we will be okay. Also, apparently one of the big 'clubs' in Prague has 5 dance floors, and one floor plays 90s music. Maybe I can find a nice Czech boy to bring me back to my jr. high days and slow dance with to some *NSYNC, Backstreet boys, or BBMack!

I will update you about Prague when I get back on Sunday! I cannot wait!!! I hope its not too cold there!

Ciao!
-Marisa

Scuola

That means school in Italian. Not much has happened the past two days, but I felt the need to update my blog. Yesterday we had class from 930-430 with maybe a 50 fifty minute break. We had our first real class of Food and Media. We basically learned the past 200 years about Food and Media in Europe. It is fascinating. We saw the first editions of cook books/restaurant guides and talked about Julia Child and her accomplishments. We also got our video project assignment, which is where a group of us make a video on a certain topic related to food in Italy. The topics last year were: coffee, fried cod, and a pasta dish. Now its our turn to come up with an idea about food and create this video. I am thinking my group should either do the video on gelato or some kind of pastry that a lot of Italians eat! It would be fun to film and we would get to eat it!!

After Food and Media we had a little break, but then we had Italian. This class seems pretty easy and goes by really fast, so it will never bore me. Italian society and culture was after Italian. We talked about Italy during the Renissance period and how they are a modern country. I am suprised I paid attention for 1.5 hours, but the teacher is really informative and the information is somewhat interesting. A few of us walked home from class, I made dinner did some homework then went to bed. Yes pretty boring day in Rome I say.

Today, half of the group didn't have class till 120, so a few of us decided to get up and go shopping!! There is a huge SALE (SALDI) going on until February, so we had to take advantage. We went to the popular area to shop, but of course we only really looked at H and M and Zara. I got a few new sweaters so I am excited. I also bought a hat because when we got to Prague on Thursday its supposed to be in the twenties and snow! I happened to leave my target sunglasses in H and M and didnt have time to go back, but I will just have to bargain for a pair on the street for 3 euro. O well.

We walked to school and had Italian. Today was our first quiz, but it was SO easy!! Italian flew by like usual and then we had a meeting with our coordinators. We got our cultural assignment that will last all semester. We are supposed to journal 4 different locations/events that happen while abroad in Italy. One has to be from Rome, but the others need to be from different areas in Italy like Cinque Terra or Siciliy or Siena. I cannot wait to figure out where I am traveling in Italy! Every place has so much to offer and see! But first we are going to Prague. We leave on Thursday and come back Sunday. I started to pack tonight. I can only bring my north face back pack, but I seem to fit whatever I need in there.

Sorry for the boring post, but tomorrow should be a fun day. At 10am, we are meeting at the University of Rome to meet about 70 Italians and do an activity with them. I loved meeting the Italians before on our third day here, so I am excited to meet some more. We are going to be doing activities with them throughout the semester, so I hope to become friends with some and go out with them!!

Omg, I almost forgot. After school today, a few of us went to get gelato and supposedly the best place in Rome, Giolliti. It was my FIRST gelato since being here! I got chocolate, mocha, and strawberry! YUMMMMMM



Now its time for homework!
Ciao
-Marisa

First Weekend in Rome

Well I experienced my first real day of rain. We went out Friday night,woke up later Saturday because it was raining. Even though it was not pouring rain, I decided to stay in for most of the afternoon and get some reading/homework done. I wish I could have explored more of Rome, but it was nice just to relax by myself and chill. Around 5 oclock, my friend Kim and I decided to take a walk. We walked up these flights of stairs right by the Tram Station and walked through a cute neighborhood. Since it was Saturday, everything closes early so nothing was open, but I am excited to get to know that area when its nice out. I came back made myself some dinner and hung out with people the rest of the night.

Today was Sunday which means Market day! My roommates and some friends got up at 10am this morning to go to the market. All I wanted to buy was a sweatshirt and lounge pants. Somehow I only brought one pair, so I figured I needed some more. I got a good sweatshirt at a cheap price, and I thought I got a bargain on some sweats, but when I came back to my apartment, they were the wrong ones. I got them in a package, which means they are not used, but they were the wrong pants. And since its a market and I have no idea where I bough them, I cant return them. They were cheap so its not that big of a deal, but note to self never buy pants or anything from the market without trying them on. I really need to find myself some new sweat pants though. Since Europe doesn't believe in driers, it takes about 2 days for our clothes to dry.

After the market, a few girls and some of the guys went to the Vatican. It was my first real monument to see since being in Rome for a week. We walked from the bus stop into the area outside of the Vatican and my mouth dropped. I had seen so many pictures of what it looks like, but its so much more amazing!! The architecture and sculptures are beautiful even though they are millions of years old! After wandering around the main circle for a bit, we decided to take a tour of the Basilica Papale di San Pietro in Vaticano, or St. Peter's Basilica. We decided to pay 5 euro and walk all the way to the top to see the view. After hiking up numerous stairs with weird obstacles, we made it to the top. The view was incredible. You could see all of Rome from the top. Despite the rain, we spent about twenty minutes on the top just admiring the architecture, the history, and the paintings! We circled the platform to really take in all 360 degrees of beauty from Rome, then made our way back down the seemingly endless number of steps back to the main chamber of the basilica. We did not do the museum tour or see the Sistine Chapel, but we plan to go back on a warmer and sunnier day to really absorb the history and culture the Vatican offers. We also missed the Pope speaking/blessing people, so we want to go back and see him speak. Here are some pictures of the inside of the Vatican as well as the top view!

Now we are off to Scholars Irish pub again to watch the Bears game! My brother and dad are at the game, hope they don't freeze!!! GO BEARS!!!!!!

Tomorrow is one of our longest days yet, so I hope I get some sleep tonight. We have Food and Media in the morning, then a break, Italian, and then Society and Culture. I hope tomorrow is a fun day of learning!