Let the Business Commence

Well, suddenly I got busy. The bulk of my classes are on Monday and Tuesday, so I've been reeling in the mini-sea of homework today.

Monday I had two classes. First, Folklore & Mythology, which was great. I have a total nerd-crush on my teacher. He's won two Fulbright scholarships and has taught in something like 4 or 5 countries. (Also, he was born in Bridgeport, CT, the location of one of the naturopathic medical schools I'm considering. And he now lives in Portland, OR, the location of the other one. Weird, right?)

The view while walking to class Monday morning.

It's hard to believe this sight will be on my to school for the next 3 months.

Between the main class building and the library there is this gorgeous park, just sitting here like no big deal.

Between classes I had a four hour break, during which I roamed the streets. I got caught in a tourist trap of a cafe, where I ended up paying 70 Kc/$3.50 for a cup of tea. I took both my unused sugar packets in a vain attempt to make myself feel better about getting ripped off. I also stuck around and watched the Olympics while using their wifi to find a distinctly non-touristy restaurant. I ended up eating a late lunch/early dinner at Golden Tikka, an Indian restaurant just far enough off the beaten path to keep tourists from stumbling upon it.

Front of the restaurant

I stepped into the heaven-scented restaurant at 4:15, and was greeted by a waiter who was somewhat confused by my timing. After being seated, I asked my waiter, who spoke minimal English, how to say something in Czech, to which he replied, "I don't speak Czech. Only Indian." He told me the dialect too but I've forgotten now which it was. I imagined that must be a pretty isolating experience, living in the Czech Republic and only speaking Indian. He explained there there is a small but meaningful Indian community, and I was reminded that a Kazak student who is in two of my classes and said that Prague contains a lot of foreign communities. It's cool to be studying abroad in such a diverse place. I primarily took two things from our conversation though. First, that if my waiter permanently lives and works in Prague without speaking Czech, I will be fine for one semester. Second, the food was probably going to be excellent.

I was right. My cauliflower and potatoes arrived doused in a mild red sauce with fresh grated ginger resting on top. Jasmine rice came alongside, and each dish was served in a steel bowl that matched the pitcher of tap water the waiter had brought me. It was fabulous, and I ate every last morsel. Luckily, the restaurant was mostly empty at the time so I am fairly certain no one noticed me scrape the leftovers from the inside of the bowl and lick them off my finger. When the waiter returned to take my dishes, I attempted to explain how delicious it was, but I think my empty plate was a clear enough message. I'll definitely be going back there again, although I decided the sentence, "I will come back here" contained too many iffy verb tenses for my waiter's English level. I'll just prove it to him in the coming weeks.

I only remembered to take a picture as I was leaving. Whoops.

After my meal, I trekked uptown to the library, where my Seminar on the Holocaust takes place. I hadn't realized that one of my roommates would be in that class with me so I had the pleasant surprise of a familiar face. It looks like this will be my hardest class by far, with lots of reading and student-led classes. I took a leap of faith (or stupidity) when I volunteered to go first and lead class next week, meaning that I actually have to do the 481 (count 'em) pages of reading. Luckily, my roommate volunteered to go the same week so we can split the bulk of it. The second half of class was spent watching a BBC documentary called "The Final Solution" that left me deflated. Monday nights are going to be a challenging time for me this semester.

Tuesday, I had three classes. First, Czech language in the morning, which I also had last Thursday. We spent about 30 minutes of our class learning to sing a Czech song with two other classes, which was way more fun (and catchy) than I was expecting. After class, I came back to the apartment and ate some lunch. While there, a different roommate realized that we had both of our evening classes together that day. First, we had Anthropology of Religion, which felt huge at about 40 people, and is all female, which just feels weird. But the teacher is so energetic and happy to be teaching, you can't help but get excited with her. It looks like we'll be covering some stuff I've done before (we'll be focusing on gender and religion one week and shamanism another), but that's not a problem for me. I was feeling ambitious and volunteered to present next week in this class too. Yay for getting work out of the way early!

Anthro of Religion ended early, so my roommate and I walked to the nearby Starbucks. About an hour later, armed with a Grande Americano, I walked back to school with her and we went to our first Literature of Prague class. The teacher was interesting and intelligent. Our main textbook is an anthology of Prague prose and poetry, which he edited (and translated a fair amount of too). I'm looking forward to immersing myself in this city's culture and history through its literature...which I realize must sound like a cheesy, nerdy, fake sentiment but it's entirely true.

Once we got back to the apartment, I make mashed potatoes, made some significant progress on "The Book Thief," and fell asleep.

I woke up this morning at 11 because I don't have classes on Wednesday. Afterwards, one of my roommates and I walked to a gym to explore. There's a certain brand of gyms that CEA recommends but they're pretty expensive and I figured there had to be cheaper options, so we went to scope out this one. I ended up purchasing a 3 month membership for 2300Kc/$115, and I'm really excited about it. There are tram and metro stops nearby so I can easily use public transportation to get there from my apartment and from school. It's simple but they have everything I need. It was just so nice to get back to a real workout today. (I even tried the elliptical a little and my knee didn't completely freak out. Dad, you'll be happy to know that I stopped as soon as it twinged, even though I'd only been going for like 7 minutes. We'll see how it feels tomorrow!)

Happy selfie at the gym. Glad to be back in my element.

Rowing sculls on the Charles River!

Afterwards I came back to the apartment and made some linner of lentils and steamed cauliflower greens. I completely burned the bottom layer of lentils but the rest turned out okay, so no harm done. And the cauliflower greens are good! I remembered being in Swaziland and having my Grandmother explain to me that Africans eat the green parts and not the white parts of cauliflower. I thought it was weird at the time, but now that I'm paying for groceries, it seems even weirder to throw away perfectly good veggies.

I also got to talk to Sam and Eleanor today, which was awesome, even though they were a little sleepy since it was 10am their time. Also, apparently it's snowing in Greensboro. I think that I just bring warmth with me wherever I go. Locals here keep telling me this is the warmest winter they've had in years. I guess I should start telling them they've got me to thank for that.

I'm off to sleep now. Na shledanou!