when 'no no' means 'yes,' you get a lot of things you don't want.

why not start off with: the beer garden was great. honest, we didn't even buy beer and it was a treat; a trail to a look out point and public park (the stand that sells beer is just a perk). and at the time, none of us had seen an aerial view of the city before. prague does, in fact, look (and at times operate) like disney world. maybe gnomes/keebler elves sharing a keg of pilnser--the local beer of choice--sat on the hill, looked over the land, and decided to build a village.

two things i learned on a walking tour:
a) there's a large and active metronome structure in the center of letna park. it is bright red and about ye big (you cant see that my arms are stretched about 35 feet). it stands in the place of what used to be a statue of stalin. A STATUE OF STALIN. history is nuts. so was stalin.
b) "that antenna thing/sore thumb in the landscape" was actually built by the communist party in an attempt to block out radio wave signals from western europe. eesh. also, we went to praha 3--this place is composed of like 8 praha's--and saw the antenna up close; there are large statues of BABIES crawling up it! ..gaa, what does it mean? WHAT DOES IT MEAN?? ..ill just say, inSTALation art by david cerny a famous czech modern artist.

to get us acquainted with the city, CET set up a prague scavenger hunt. we broke into groups and collected artifacts in various locations (keep your purse guarded at all times, they warned). the hunt was well crafted and i admit i was into it, but we did have a few moments of "where..are we?" we were able to visit vysehradsky cemetery where dvorak was burried (i wont pretend that i knew who he was before we started looking for him..okay, i still dont know. wikipedia it), as well as kafka's grave (that guy i know), the old town square, and charles bridge. the charles bridge is gorgeous, but can i get real?: it's crazy town. where there are tourists, there are people who like to entertain tourists. to name a few: puppeteer who smiles confident that 'less is more' when it comes to teeth, caricaturist artist (his portfolio includes angelina jolie and brad pitt enjoying the view), and a whining five piece band. poor charles the iv, i wonder if he knew one day his bridge would kinda smell like pee.
also, if you're wondering, we won the scavenger hunt...czech mate.

speaking of czech, intensive language courses began two weeks ago. with the help of our darling professor and an elementary czech 101 workbook, i managed to survive our first quiz last friday. the conclusion: playing boggle would be easier if you decided to look for czech words instead of english words. thus far, ive enjoyed grammar complications like, the nouns change based on whether they are subjects or objects in a sentence, and there are no articles. my favorite word: zmrzlina = ice cream. try memorizing hundreds of words/numbers that look like that. actually, dont try that.

weather is wacky here. the worst day was last monday--45 degrees and scattered showers (the nature gods spitting on you every twenty minutes). it pours at night, and randomly during the day (but its not humid, ladies). BUT last saturday we went for a picnic because it was 70 degrees outside. we also saw a double rainbow ('what does it mean??'). basically, you can walk in and out of storm clouds by crossing into the sunlight across the street (figure 1).

figure 1: sunlight across the street

during afternoon walks i usually take a tram a few stops away from my apartment, hop off, and walk. ive ended up at old town square (gothic cathedrals and baroque church, as well as a festive astronomical clock--again, watch your purse during the five minutes of entertainment that occur on the hour). in the center of the square there is a statue of jan hus...look him up too if you're interested. comparatively, the new town was added in 1350-ish. ive also stumbled upon the jewish quarter; small, but significant. i haven't gone on a guided tour, but the cemetery and temples are remnants of a very different time. it seems like a lot of what ive seen here is just that. last week for the jewish new year i attended a service at a local synagogue--but not just any synagogue. half-way through the service, i learned that it was preserved during WWII because the nazi party intended for it to be a space that revealed, "what the jews were like." the history was striking, and the notion that we were congregating there together gave me the chills.

jaw dropping: prague castle. i dont think a picture or a description could do it justice. kings of bohemia, presidents, roman emperors, held office there. wiki: "the bohemian crown jewels are kept here"--ill be honest, after reading that i asked myself why are there no american crown jewels. and then i bopped myself on the head.

more recently, we went on a weekend trip to czech countryside, specifically, the town of cesky krumlov (pronounced: chess-key crumb-lov).

the town, also built by elves, was charming, and every where you looked there was a "gaggle of japanese tourists" (seriously. our CET program head said popular japanese tour-books recommend visiting the town). fact: the oldest renaissance theater in europe is located in crusty krumlov. while we were being shown around the local castle, one of the central european studies students (whatwas tired of standing so he sat down on a window ledge and got yelled at, "that window ledge is older than your country's constitution!" amen, chesty krumlov.

those of us who wandered off to the overgrown backyard of the castle (first time ive ever written that), found that it was an apple orchard. at first, we all assumed they were crab and didnt reach, until one of the eves picked and ate a ripe one. she flipped out, started raving about how delicious it was (note: it was a macintosh), and so we all started picking. we stood there for minutes gorging on apples. and i just realized that's the extent of the story, sorry if it wasn't interesting. but could anyone in czech 18th century have predicted a scene like that? impossible, i think. unless..there was a witch, (yes, im about to do this), one who would shout nonsense in the town square--like, "hundreds of years from now, heathens from the newly-discovered America will venture here; they will eat from our apple orchard! beware!"something like that? oh well, she was eventually hung for her use of the word iPhone. tangent over. all in all, the weekend was delightful.

apologies if this was my tour guide post, but HEY maybe we all learned something today? it's okay if you already forgot how to say ice-cream. i tend to do that with czech words.