in Vienna for the weekend. Updates to come!!!

Just Czeching Things Off the Czech List

So Friday, instead of going to the Zoo, which was an option if we wanted to, we slept in a little bit and headed to Lesser Town on the other side of the river. We saw more awesome cathedrals and the Lennon Wall, and Kampa Park. At the Lennon Wall, we took lots of crazy pictures.

CAMERON ATTACKED MY COMPUTER: There was thismnjgjm3sd

l.’koiphu[g90vlkgvuyi ughjmcgmyud7ykmeyujdgumfi,kvhk, hi. How are you. You love me yes you do you carsrughsjhg

Anyways, at the wall, Beeknox took pictures for this German lady, so we asked her to take our picture. We told her that we wanted to jump and she said “NO! no jumping. It will mess up the picture.” So we waited for her to leave and then we asked these girls from California to take our picture.

We headed to Kampa Park afterwards and found the babies from the TV tower. After climbing on them and taking pictures, we ran into a free concert in the park. We headed back and went to our favorite Italian place: Sorrento’s. Tom, the owner said that if we told all of our friends to keep coming, he would give us a 10% discount. SCORE!

We went to bed relatively early and decide to explore Kutna Hora the next day. We woke up pretty early and headed to the train station and bought tickets to Kutna Hora. We rushed to Platform 2, got on, and were off on another adventure. I turned to BeeKnox as we were being very European and eating bread on the train and said, “I feel like a big kid.” We have to do stuff all by ourselves and it so fun being so independent. We explored the Ossuary, a cathedral that is decorated by the bones of over 40,000 people because they ran out of room to bury people. It was really eerie, but really neat. We headed to yet another Italian place for lunch, while it poured, and then went to Santa Barbara Cathedral, which was gorgeous. We could see the skies in the distance getting really dark, so we decided to head back before it poured, but not before stopping for gelato! I got coffee and cookies gelato. IT WAS SO CHEAP, just 12 crowns a scoop or a little more than 50 cents. Molly and I were the only ones without raingear and it drizzed, drizzled, sprinkled, then rained…We made it to the train station and had to wait an hour for the next train. I decided it would be fun to walk down the two metal slates that made up the wheelchair ramp, but they were wet from the rain…BAD IDEA. I busted my butt and everyone in our group gasped and screamed. Oh I forgot to say that we were in a tunnel, so it echoed like CRAZYYYYYYY. I got up and sprinted away from everyone because it was SOOOOO LOUD! After that we entertained ourselves for a little while. Beeknox, Justin, and I sat with this couple on the train, who were about to visit their daughter, who was studying abroad in Budapest for the semester. We finally made it back to Praha and decided to relax for the night…that plan changed quickly.

We all headed to Palac Acroplis or something like that. There were two rooms: one with Reggae Rap Music and one with Techno Craziness. We kept switching back and forth and had a BLASTTT!!! The best part was right before we left. We were in the Techno Craziness room and this Czech guy and girl were dancing like crazy people, so we were watching them. The next thing we know, Bradley is in a dance off with the girl. Funniest 5 minutes of my entire life. RIDICULOUS! He won, of course :). And that was the end of week one :)

The End of Week One

Ohhhhh Week 1. We have had a phenomenal time so far. We are all piled into the Institute right now working on stuff for the upcoming week. It’s a little intense considering we have a very limited time that we’re actually here. So I think we left off with Thursday. I had my first classes and I love them so much already. I started bright and early at 9 AM with ENG 223- Czech Film and Literature or World Literature. We started with an intro to what we would be talking about in the class and then we went on an excursion to Vyserhad. We visited one of the most famous graveyards in Central Europe where tons of artists are buried and no politicians. We saw where Dvorak is buried along with hundreds of other important figures in the Czech arts community. One of the main people missing from this graveyard in Franz Kafka, but he is buried in the Jewish Cemetery instead.

After seeing a gorgeous view of Prague that we hadn’t seen before (we’re usually on a different part of the river), snapping a few pictures, and regrouping after losing a few people, Molly (one of our lovely roomies) and I grabbed lunch at Paneria and headed back to the Institute for our 1 o’clock class. I went to World Food and Population or something like that (it’s a science, technology, and society class). The most precious Bob Patterson teaches this class. He said at the beginning of class, “I just want y’all to have fun.” Yes, please!

Then a Czech professor, Dr. Cerny came to talk to us about Czech population, economics, and it kind of turned into a discussion on the way the Czech Republic was affected by the Communist Regime. It was really interesting hearing about everything from the perspective of someone who grew up here.

After class, we headed back to the pension, where B Knox had been doing work all day. We headed to this small used book store, where Bee Knox bought what we thought was a Bible, but turned out to be a book of prayers in Czech. We then headed to a few other stores next to JZP ( our metro stop Jiriho z Podebrad). Jessica bought a really cute shirt and I bought a little notebook with Czech on the cover. We stopped by Albert’s, picked up some food, including this chocolate with kittens on it. It turns out they were called “Cat Tongues.”

Then…we hit da club. We went to the 5 story club right next to Charles Bridge. Our whole group gets along really well, so we all rolled up together. So, each story played a different kind of music.

1.Radio Hits

2. Dance Music

3. Oldies

4. "Black Music"

5. Chill Out

Molly, Sara, BeeKnox, and I hung out for the most part on floors 1 and 4. The Czechs really love Lady Gaga, by the way. We had a BLASTTTT!! It was soooo much fun. Then we attempted to get home. If you look on a map of Prague and look at the Zivikov(?) tower (the TV tower) and then you find Charles Bridge, you can see the distance between the club and our hostel. BeeKnox and I looked up tram stops before we left to get home, since the metro stops running at midnight. Before we even got to the tram stop, we lost one of our people. After we found him, we got on the 53 tram to switch to another one. Then everything goes downhill from here.

One of the guys with us starting freaking out because he saw a pistol on the ground. After finally getting off, after freaking everyone out, we discover that one of our guys has the pistol. WHAT DA HECK?!! Then he said “Oh hey guys, It’s a cap gun.” Then he pulled the trigger and was like “Nope, IT’S A LASER POINTER!!!” After that fiasco, we waited for number 56.

At this point, we tried to call a taxi, but we didn’t know what street we were on. Koki and Mikey went to look for a sign, and when the tram came, they were nowhere to be found. Beeknox took the majority of the group on the tram, while Justin, Molly, and I walk around the corner to find Koki and Mikey and they were walking towards us now. After deciding to just call a taxi, we turn the corner and see the tram still there. Honestly, I don’t remember this really happening because adrenaline kicked in. I screamed to everybody to not cross the street until I said because it was a really busy street. We dead sprinted to the tram and luckily BeeKnox had seen us and told the guy driving not to go. We get on number 56. We don’t know what stop to get off really. Beeknox and I are trying to figure stuff out and the language barrier isn’t helping much right now. Then we’re in the middle of nowhere. We try to figure it out, but we ended up just having to hail 3 taxis to get home. We were less than a mile away. It was kind of frustrating, but we paid next to nothing for our taxi ride. So, we ended up getting home at 4ish, but we were safe and sound :)

Hudba v Česká Republika or Music in the Czech Republic!!

So after experiencing music here, I thought why not? It's blog worthy.

So BeeKnox,Mark,Brent,and I were rolling up in Praha in our taxi from the airport and the taxi driver popped in his Justin Timberlake CD. BeeKnox and I were rolling laughing in the backseat. I've also heard Forever Young and the remix Young Forever.

BeeKnox made a trip to our fave Paneria and they were playing "Where is the Love?"

We've also heard "I've Gotta Feeling,” as well as “Meet Me Half Way.” My favorite song that we have heard so far was probably tonight when we were at our favorite restaurant Sorrento’s and in the middle of dinner “My Heart Will Go On” came on. We all made eye contact and busted out laughing.

So, in summary, we haven’t really heard any Czech pop music, just really random mostly bad American music.

We’ll expand on this in our post on the club… :)

Day 5

Today was B Knox’s first day of class. I slept in a bit because I was really congested. We headed to the Institute around 12:15 and I got some reading done for my class tomorrow, while B Knox was in class. I ran to Albert’s for lunch that was under a dollar (yogurt, bread, cheese SOOOO GOOD) and got a lot accomplished. I headed out with the other roomies and a few other friends (Jay, Susannah, Shelly, Courtney, and Koki) to grab some sushi because a lot of were craving it. After a successful dinner, we stopped at the Potraviny and grabbed some cookies and an apple.

Now let's hear from Brittany Anne!!!

Hi friends and family! It’s me writing my first for real blog post! Weez has done most of them so far (along with some collaboration) but this is Brittany Anne on her own…here goes! J

I am absolutely loving being in Prague! This city is incredible and my favorite place in the world is now the castle and castle grounds. I can’t wait to spend many days up there looking out over this amazing city and seeking out every exciting and interesting corner of the castle and its surrounding area. There will certainly be plenty of time for that in the near future, but now, after several adventures, playing musical rooms, eating yummy food, meeting sweet new friends and doing lots of exploring, we have finally started to settle into a routine. I had my first day of classes today and it was a very interesting start to the semester. I started off with HI 252: Modern American History from 1-4 pm at the Institute. Random class selection for studying abroad?...yup! However, I need a history credit so it was a perfect choice for me and I love history so I was excited for this one! My class is super small, there are only 5 of us, so we will get to know each other very well. It’s going to be a great class and relate a lot to World War II and events in American history that relate to or took place in Europe. We get to go to Berlin for a weekend too so be on the lookout for exciting details about that trip in a few weeks! J J

My second, and only other, class, 19^th Century Philosophy, got pushed back due to the professor’s schedule. It is usually supposed to be from 4-7pm but tonight it was from 6:30-9:30 pm. (Add that to 1-4 and throw in some reading for history in between and let’s just say it was quite a long and studious summer day!) This class is going to be way more difficult for me than history. I tend to think very logically and literally and judging by today, me and the roundabout ways of philosophy will have a difficult time interacting. We flew through information and my brain was literally left hurting. Oh well, that will be one more thing I will have to work on! The most important thing I learned today was a little more about the spiritual climate of the country. According to my professor the Czech Republic is the most atheist country in all of Europe. He said that latest statistics showed only 11% of Czechs believe in a personal God and it broke my heart to hear how few people in this place know that they can be truly free. It’s obvious in just walking around that this is a dark place, people seem stoic and rarely happy or joyful, and churches are few and far between. From a little research it seems the lack of spiritually or any desire for it is likely due to the pain experienced by the people due to its history of communism and the people’s association of that with the Catholic church. I would really like study this more in the next little bit, but for now I just wish my Czech was strong enough to explain to the people around me the incredible joy and freedom they can find in following Christ! If anything could make me want to love this city more it is understanding that they are so desperately in need of knowing the Savior. As Weez and I spend the next few weeks here we would like to ask you to pray with us for this city and nation. It is a place that is hurting and in need of the love and healing only Christ can bring. Hope I didn’t bore you with my forever long post, I love you all! Goodnight!

Beeknox and Weez reunited at this point:

The boys (Jay and Justin) helped us move our furniture around Madeline style (all the beds lined up) for the payment of cookies. We all organized our room and it is beautiful. Our roomies are hilarious and we’ve laughed so much already.

Sara’s quotes of the day: “Like we’re going to get struck by lightning before we have any fun”

“And another thing. The girl on the horse raft looks just like my mom”

“ Do you watch ‘How I watch Your Mother?’”

Dobrou noc!!

Day 4

We ate our last amazing breakfast at the hotel and got picked up in the tiniest car ever for three people and three huge suitcases and two huge carry on bags. I sat on Brittany, not really in her lap and had my head smushed to the ceiling as our driver crazily whipped around corners. We made it to the hostel and FINALLY had a room, but it was currently occupied by boys…but our luggage had a place to be. We then caught the metro like masters, got off at Mustek, and went to the Institute for Orientation. We got our keys and went on a tour. We were told horror stories about pick-pocketing, etc.

We had a delicious lunch of mixed fruit from the market, Laughing Cow cheese, fresh bread, and Florian yogurt, which is our favorite!! [especially blueberry, strawberry, or mixed fruit]. After a brief lesson on Czech language and history, we stopped for dinner in Old Town Square. After watching the Astronomical Clock show with Koki and Bradley, we grabbed dinner from a vendor. We got hugeeeee kolbasas or kielbasas on fresh bread rolls and the boys got this bread thing that looked like pizza that had ketchup and cheese on it.

B Knox got some bananas for the rest of her nutella on the way home. I ran with some people to the Potraviny (grocery) and grabbed a Sprite and some more Milka chocolate! The Sprite here tastes a lot different and better. It’s more lemony and delicious!

Then one of my favorite things ever happened. We got to chat with almost all of our favorite people at once! Gordo the most fantastisch friend ever texted Haley, Chellup, and JWong and we all video chatted for almost 2 hours. I was sooo overwhelmed with happiness :). We had our first night in room 33 and the first night with our new roomies, Molly and Sara, who we love already!!!

Sara's quote of the day: "I feel like beds reflect the Czech Republic, you know like, real abrasive"

Day 3

The fountain right outside St. Vitus Cathedral

Today (5/17) B Knox and I caught the metro for what we thought was the last time from our other hotel to head to the hostel where everyone else was. We made the trek and even got asked for directions [we blend in so well!!!!]. We made it to the hostel and it was a crazy house when we got there with tons of new friends to greet! The managers asked us if we could stay for one more night… :/ We were a little frustrated, but our other hotel was super nice and he charged us the same as the hostel :)

We headed out to lunch pretty quickly and went to Old Town. We grabbed a calzone at a little gyro stand and hit the market for some fresh fruit. B Knox and I got some bangin’ grapes and an orange. We all ate at the fountain next to the institute and stayed pretty warm; it was even a little sunny!

After lunch, we took a nice little hike to the Castle.

We toured through St. Vitus’ Cathedral, which was absolutely astonishing. It was soooo beautiful with so much intricate architecture and stain glass.

After gawking at the gorgeousness, we headed to the Palace Gardens. Again, gorgeous!! We stumbled upon a little gelato chain called Cream & Dream that my friend Chad told me about, so we had to stop. We was SOOOOOO good! I had strawberry!

We saw a lot of awesome other sights that we wanted to hit up, including a toy museum! We headed back to the hostel for a bit and skyped with GORDO!!!! First skype convo and it was AMAZING!!!!!

Then we headed out with a pretty large group for dinner. After dinner at a little Italian place, where I got gnocchi, we headed to the TV Tower. This has been one of the most intriguing parts of the city for me. There are obvious ways the Communists impacted Prague, this being the most visible. This tower was used to block TV and radio signals from Western European countries, as well as the United States. B Knox, Bradley, Koki, and I went exploring and discovering that you can go up to almost the top of it and there was a student discount! The thing is this tower TOWERS over EVERYTHING in the city! It’s so creepy and looming. I skyped with my family for a bit and then we just went back to the hotel for the last time and watched some MTV with German subtitles.

Day 2

Today (5/16) was FREEZING!! It was 40 something and all of us had packed for warmer weather :/ So we headed out to find some warm clothes. I wanted a warmer jacket, but we didn’t find one for under $50, so I decided against that. Kiley needed some more pants, so we headed to the mall. After finding a jacket for Kiley and some Milka chocolate (seriously best chocolate ever) and the boys being tired of shopping we walked in some more circles. We ended up in the Old Town Square and watched the Astronomical Clock. We grabbed some black currant gelato for a dollar, which was phenomenal!!! Kiley got melon and it was BALLLLLLLIN too! We ran into a Pub Crawl guy, who wanted us to come drink that night. We politely declined J but he was the person that we trusted with our camera J

Then we headed to the Fred and Ginger building! It’s some National Dance Centre named after Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Then we split up the guys went to hang out while we headed to H&M!!!!! We got the pants and I got a dress for 100 czk or $10! We headed back to the hostel and met up with some friends for dinner. We went to Sorrento’s, which is an Italian restaurant close to our hostel. We headed back to the hostel and hung out with missionaries traveling with YWAM(Youth with a Mission). [Caleb Durham: I told them about yo mama b/c they were from Kona, Hawaii!!]

After a little while, we realized that the metro ended at midnight so we sprinted to our train, talking in German to avoid strange people, and safely made it to our hostel. Brent hung out a little longer and when we got back to the hostel, the lady told us that the buzzer on the wall was broken. We then asked the lady for the number to the other hostel to call Brent to let him know. She gave us the wrong number and we had to just trust that Brent would be fine and he was J

We're finally here!!!!
After running through the airport in ATL and a 10 hour flight that was only supposed to be 9, we are finally in the Golden City, PRAGUE! On our flight we met the guy that sat behind us after we heard him say that he was from Chapel Hill. We went on with the other regular questions to find out that he was going to Prague for Study Abroad, and just happened to be on our program! RIDICULOUS! After a while we learned that he had been to Prague before! So after our collection of 9 cups of water, two coffees, and adventurous airline food, and watching Leap Year, Bride Wars, How I Met Your Mother, and 30 Rock (more like Weez watched these as BKnox slept), we arrived at PRG. Our newly made friend, Brent, and us stayed together through customs and baggage claim, exchange a little money, and then caught a taxi to our hostel.

This is where the real fun begins...We arrive at the hostel to find that we don't have rooms that we can go to immediately, even though all we wanted to do was shower and sleep. The director of our program was supposed to reserve rooms for us, but we don't know what happened with that. The hostel had our names, so we checked it. The manager was really nice and said that our rooms were just getting fixed up and would be ready in the afternoon, so we stored our luggage there, grabbed our metro passes, and set out on adventure.

Brent lead the way to a small pub where I (Weez) had goulash and Bknox had a yummy mozzarella, basil pasta thing . We were struggling to stay awake, but set out to see our school! The Prague Institute is around a little corner in Old Town, the best part of the city so far. We crossed the Charles Bridge twice and explored on both sides. On the other side, we found a Starbucks and like typical Americans crashed there for a good while. I almost fell asleep and that' s when we decided that of course our rooms should be ready by now, and headed to the hostel to check in, shower, and rest up before dinner. We get there, hang out with some State and App kids and then I hit the couch in the hallway for a nap.

Here's where it gets reallll good. We then head to the front . We're told there's no room for us in the inn :( We kindfully argue with the lady at the front desk, while 4 or 5 people argue in Czech, while we stared blankly. It was finally decided that BKnox, Brent, and I would be sent to a hotel on the other side of town. So we hopped in the car, had too much luggage, hopped in a different car and were off. We arrived to find a beautiful room with a TV, bathtub, mini bar, awesome matresses, etc. Then we decided to headed back to the other hostel to go to dinner with everybody (there are 8 of us here already). So Brent, Bknox, and I hop on the metro that we've already basically mastered, which is pretty easy with only 3 lines. We then meet the friends and wander around the neighborhood around the hostel to see what we wanted to eat. We ended up eating at a Vietnamese restuarant that was MAD CHEAP! (Bknox and I only paid 87 kzc or a little over 4 dollars). We ate our fill of noodles and rice, spent some quality time with the boys, and then went our separate ways. We took the metro back and are now hitting the sack and getting ready to explore the Prague Castle tomorrow!
(No internet in the hotel, so this was 5/15. Our first day in Prague)

This Is It

In 3 hours, I'm leaving my house to go to RDU!

B Knox and I take off around 3, head to ATL, and then off to PRAGUE!

I can't believe it's actually time to go.

This trip has been so unreal for the longest time, but HERE WE GO!

NEXT POST-FROM PRAGUE!!!!!

10 days....

REALLY!?!!!!!

crazy junk right there.

So I feel like a lot of people don't really think I'm excited for this summer...

I really am :)

The problem right now is wrapping my head around the fact that I leave next Friday.

NEXT FRIDAY!!!!!!

I have so much to do before then!

I am soooo pumped, but it's surreal